Lillian Hellman

3 Pages 645 Words

Lillian Hellman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1906. She died at Martha’s Vineyard in 1984. Lillian’s work includes screenplays, plays, novels, short stories, and an autobiography/ memoir.

Lillian’s personal life was reflected in most of her plays and sometimes even inspired the whole play. For example Lillian is described as an “independent child,” by Carol MacNichols in a “Dictionary of Literary Biography,” (Contemporary Authors) this trait of Lillian’s personality is portrayed in her story, “ Run Away” which is in the book, “ A writers reader”. Lillian was an independent person in many ways; this is reflected in her story, “Run Away”. The girl, whose name was never mentioned in the story, runs away from her home and lives on her own. The girl in the story leaves her home and stays in a dollhouse, takes care of herself, buys her own food, and even begs to rent a room. All of these are examples of this girl’s independence. Lillian is portraying her own sense of independence through this girl in her story. This girl reflects Lillian’s independence as a young girl. The constant moving in Lillian’s life, a father that was hardly ever there, and life as an only child resulted in Lillian’s independence and rebellious ways.

Lillian was led into an early marriage to press agent, Arthur Kober by the impulse of loving the publishers parties, and the adventurous life of the literary world of the nineteen twenties, which Arthur Kober was an active part in. In 1929 she accompanied her husband, Arthur, to Germany. Here Lillian was exposed for the first time to the Nazi movement, which was her first exposure to Anti-Semitism. Later this theme would come to play in her stage play, “Watch on the Rhine” and “The Searching Wind”. This is another example of how her personal life is sometimes reflected in her work.

As time passed, Lillian’s marriage eventually came to an end o...