Lillian Hellman

Paul Johnson in his book "Intellectuals" has a chapter on Lillian Hellman, famous for a play called "The Children's Hour" (now at the Comedy Theatre in London), with the title "Lies, Damn Lies and Lillian Hellman". He writes: "... for Hellman, disregard for the truth came to occupy a central place in her life and work." Indeed, after having had a long feud with Mary Mcarthy, she took Mcarthy to court for writing this about her: "I once said in an interview that every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'." In the process of sueing Mcarthy for over $2 million she made a virtual pauper of her.
One of the most remarkable things about Hellman was her attachment to Dashiel Hammett; this had to do with love and politics - they were both deeply committed socialists, both having to testify before the House of Un-American Activities; Hammett was the unlucky one who was sent to prison for a few months because he refused to answer their questions. She got off by a clever ruse.
I find the union of Hellman and Hammett remarkable because on the face of it they seem to be two characters with nothing in common except their political devotion to socialism. She wrote plays, he wrote detective novels; she was teetotal, he was a drunk. His most famous novel was "The Maltese Falson", made into a superb noire film by John Huston. They did have one thing in common, according to Paul Johnson, in that they both had numerous affairs with other men and women. She "was notorious for taking the sexual initiative with men" - Arthur Miller attributed her bitter enmity towards him to the fact that he had turned her down. Hammett visited prostitutes.
I think her plays are examples of "the well-made play"; they aren't great but they are entertaining and the conflicts are well argued. His books have never appealed to me (I like the Huston film though); I prefer Raymond Chandler.