Word: hellman
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...home of such luminaries as Fitzgerald and Lewis, Huxley and Maugham, and ended up with the federal government trying to have his body removed from Arlington National Cemetery since Communist bones there would presumably pervert the sacredness of row after row of white crosses. His long-time companion, Lillian Hellman, who now runs his estate, refuses to allow anyone access to his papers for biographical purposes--presumably on the grounds that the man had had enough. Still, when Gertrude Stein first came to America, Hammett was the first writer she wanted to meet. Stein was all wrong about...
Biographer Richard Layman has gathered most of the clues to this puzzling case. He got no help from Playwright Lillian Hellman, Hammett's friend and frequent companion during the last 30 years of his life, but this handicap is not crippling. Hammett had done his best work by the time he met Hellman. The crucial years, when he raised pulp writing to the level of art, were already behind...
...Hammett had any political convictions before he became friends with Hellman, he apparently kept them to himself...
Layman argues that "Hellman's influence" chiefly led Hammett into liberal, antifascist crusades in the late 1930s. This may explain his initiation but not the zealousness that followed. In 1937, like many writers at the time, he became a champion of the Loyalist side in the Spanish Civil War. By 1940 he had moved far to the left and was working to get the Communist Party slate on state ballots in time for the upcoming election. His conversion was swift and complete. Writes Layman: "It seems likely from the responsibilities Hammett was given for Communist activities that he joined...
...Dennis Christopher), raids the bank vault and thwarts his uncle. As Horace cradles the all but empty bank box, Regina goads him into a heart spasm and icily denies him the lifesaving pills that are just beyond his reach. After a few more calculated turns of Lillian Hellman's plot screws, Regina proves to be more fearsome than any little...