Lillian Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was a renowned American playwright and memoirist. Her plays dealt with complex political, social, and familial subjects. Most were well received, and from the height of her career to the present, she is considered a female pioneer in theater.
The Children’s Hour (1934) was the play that launched Hellman’s career in theater. This was followed by number of other successful productions, the best known of which are The Little Foxes, Watch on the Rhine, The Children’s Hour, and Toys in the Attic.
She was awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Prize for best play of the year for the latter two. Though The Autumn Garden, which premiered in 1951, is one of her lesser-known works, many critics considered it her best. Read More→
In troubled economic times, books (and movies) serve as means of comfort and escape. Here we will explore what Americans were reading during the era of the Great Depression, and which women authors of the 1930s appeared on U.S. bestseller lists.
Shown at right, one of the era’s prominent female authors, Daphne du Maurier.
As we know, books that make it to bestseller lists aren’t necessarily the ones that endure as classics. I had no idea what to expect when I explored the lists of top 10 best selling novels for each of the years of the 1930s, but what I did surprised me.
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Louisa May Alcott’s reach into contemporary culture, particularly with her iconic character, Jo March, is never ending. And so, I bring you this interview with Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888) from the great beyond, featuring her forthright answers to my hypothetical questions.
Patti Smith is just one of many modern and contemporary authors who was inspired by Jo March. In her memoir, Just Kids, Smith recalled that her earliest inspiration was the fictional Jo, one of the four sisters in Louisa’s most beloved novel, Little Women.
What would a gawky, bookish teen growing up in New Jersey in the 1950s and 60s (albeit one destined to become a punk legend) find in common with a 19th-century girl in crinolines? Read More→
George Eliot (November 22, 1819 – December 22, 1880; real name Mary Ann Evans; sometimes called herself Marian) was born in Warwickshire, England. Her probing Victorian novels have confirmed her reputation as a giant of English litereture; arguably, Middlemarch (1871 – 72) is her greatest achievement.
Her writing was politically and socially driven, with characters that are small-town individuals, some free thinkers, each with great psychological depth.
Eliot is also recognized for her interest in and knowledge of the visual arts. Her surviving journals and other writings contain information on trips to museums and a collection of her thoughts and emotions connected to the artworks she viewed. Read More→
It seems only fair that Charlotte Brontë, author of the beloved novel Jane Eyre (and others), the subject of endless film adaptations, and which will be in print for time immemorial, should have her say.
I’m thrilled to say that I’ve conducted an interview with Charlotte Brontë; that she’s been deceased since 1855 is a mere technicality.
Truthfully, her first-person narratives provide incisive answers, needing only someone (that would be me) to ask hypothetical, yet pertinent questions: Read More→
