Lillian Hellman

Lillian Hellman (Playwright) Lillian Hellman was born in New Orleans, grew up in New Orleans and New York City, and attended New York University and Columbia. Her career as a playwright began in 1934 with The Children's Hour, the first of several plays that would bring her international attention and praise, among them The Little Foxes, Watch On The Rhine, Another Part Of The Forest, The Autumn Garden, and Toys In The Attic. Hellman was twice the recipient of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the best play of the year (for Watch On The Rhine and Toys In The Attic). She was also awarded the Gold Medal for Drama from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1972 a definitive edition of all her work for the theatre was published as The Collected Plays. Hellman received the National Book Award for An Unfinished Woman in 1969. She subsequently wrote two additional volumes of autobiorgaphy, Pentimento and Scoundrel Time. In the decades before her death in 1984, Hellman divided her time between New York and Martha's Vineyard.