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Scope and Contents |
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The Lillian Hellman papers comprise manuscripts, correspondence, legal documents,
business records, appointment books, scrapbooks, and clippings. The collection,
which spans the years 1904 to 1984, is largely in its original order. The material
is arranged in five series: Series I. Works, 1934-84; Series II. Correspondence,
1904-84; Series III. Other Papers, 1922-84; Series IV. Legal and Financial Papers,
1942-84; and Series V. Works by and Papers of Others, 1934-84. |
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The Works Series of 44 boxes consists of two subseries, one embracing Hellman’s
drama, the second her film scripts, memoirs, and other work (interviews, short
prose, speeches, editorial work, and teaching). Miss Hellman maintained her archive
of creative work with considerable care, retaining successive drafts, with inserted
revisions and corrections. A number of galleys, some with author’s annotations, are
present, as are extensive research notes for several plays. |
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The Correspondence Series, running to 47 boxes, contains Hellman’s professional,
business, and household correspondence files, particularly from the late 1940s
onward. Carbons of much of her outgoing correspondence are included. |
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Correspondents include agents Don Congdon and Robert Lantz, lawyers Oscar Bernstien
and Stanley M. Isaacs, and the publishing firms Knopf, Little Brown, and Random
House. Personal correspondence is generally absent, but there are at least a few
letters present from such friends and colleagues as Leonard Bernstein, John Hersey,
Richard Poirier, Margaret Tallichet (Talli Wyler), and Richard Wilbur. |
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The Other Papers Series is, at 49 boxes, the largest in the collection, containing
a
miscellany of address books, appointment books, clippings, notebooks, and
scrapbooks. The clippings and scrapbooks which represent the majority of the series
are, to an extent, mutually exclusive both in subject matter and time coverage. The
clippings file, which was maintained until the end of Miss Hellman’s life, devotes
considerable space to political matters. Attention to political issues is
particularly strong for the years 1948 to 1952. The scrapbooks, which include
programs and some telegrams and correspondence as well as clippings, are devoid of
political affairs and were not created after 1981. |
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The Legal and Financial Papers Series is a disparate collection of records of Lillian
Hellman’s investments, personal taxes, household expenses, as well as a miscellany
of retired legal files. Of greatest interest here is the documentation of her
acquisition and administration of the literary estate of Dashiell Hammett. |
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The Works by and Papers of Others Series is, at four boxes, the smallest in the
collection. Found here are several short pieces about Hellman, a late typescript
draft of Diane Johnson’s biography of Dashiell Hammett, and galleys and page proofs
of the 1974 Hammett anthology The Continental Op. A
substantial group of reports and documents concerning Lillian Hellman compiled by
various federal agencies between 1940 and 1975 and obtained under the Freedom of
Information Act by Peter Benjaminson also appears in the series. |
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Series Descriptions |
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Series I. Works, 1934-84, 44 boxes |
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This series is subdivided into two subseries, A. Plays and B. Other Works.
The extensive collection of drafts of plays comprising the first subseries
is arranged in alphabetical order, and within each play the sequence is
chronological, with theatrical adaptations, translations, and film versions
appearing last for each title. Included here are Hellman’s scenarios for
film versions of The Children’s Hour, The Little Foxes, The
Searching Wind, and Watch on the
Rhine. Citations to Manfred Triesch’s 1966 bibliography The Lillian Hellman Collection at the University of
Texas are given where appropriate. Drafts relating to revivals
of The Children’s Hour and The Little Foxes, as well as many drafts of
My Mother, My Father and Me not listed in
Triesch are present in the collection. |
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Subseries B., Other Works, has been arranged into the following categories:
Cookbook, Film, Interviews, Memoirs, Short Works, and Speeches. Prominent
are the drafts of Hellman’s four volumes of memoirs published between 1969
and 1980, along with the afterwords she wrote for Three, the 1979 one-volume publication of the texts of Pentimento, Scoundrel
Time, and An Unfinished Woman.
The drafts of the mysterious Maybe include
large-type pages made necessary by Hellman’s deteriorating vision. |
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Lillian Hellman’s work on the films The Chase
and The North Star is represented by drafts
found in the subseries, along with some other film work not based on her own
dramas. Unrealized film projects present here include a 1952 script of Nancy
Mitford’s The Blessing and an outline of
Christina Stead’s The Little Hotel (1976). |
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Drafts and notes for articles and other short pieces, together with
interviews, speeches, teaching files, and her editorial work on The Selected Letters of Anton Chekhov complete
the subseries. |
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Series II. Correspondence, 1904-84 (bulk 1934-84), 47 boxes |
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The filing system used for the voluminous correspondence series continues
that used by Hellman herself, with files arranged alphabetically by
correspondent or subject. Although the general absence of personal
correspondence in the Hellman papers has been noted, there are groups of
significant personal correspondence to be found in the papers. These include
a large group of letters Lillian Hellman sent John Melby between 1945 and
1978 illuminating aspects of their relationship and Melby’s problems as a
State Department employee in the Cold War years. These letters were donated
by Melby to the Ransom Center. |
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The Dashiell Hammett files contain letters from Hammett to Hellman written
between 1931 and 1950. Accompanying these is correspondence between Lillian
Hellman and Diane Johnson, Steven Marcus, Stephen Talbot, and Jon Tuska, all
of whom, as Hammett biographers, faced greater or lesser difficulties placed
in their paths by Hellman. |
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At Dorothy Parker’s death in 1973 Lillian Hellman became her friend’s
literary executor. While few letters between them are found here, there is
substantial correspondence dealing both with publication of Parker’s work
and with attempts of various writers to produce biographies of Mrs. Parker.
Hellman’s ultimately unsuccessful attempt to prevent publication of John
Keats’s You Might as Well Live is detailed in
her letters to Keats and to his publisher, Viking Press. |
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An extensive correspondence between Hellman, her father Max, and her aunts
during the period of Max Hellman’s hospitalization in the late 1940s
survives in the papers and gives a view of Hellman family dynamics. |
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Perhaps the most significant group of letters from the pre-World War Two
period to remain in the Hellman papers is one relating to the Spanish Civil
War documentary film The Spanish Earth. A
number of letters from Herman Shumlin and Archibald MacLeish relating to the
production of that film, along with later correspondence from director Joris
Ivens and the film’s distributors are present. |
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The extensive index of correspondents found at the end of this finding aid
identifies and locates these and numerous other personal and corporate
correspondents in the papers. The large collection of fan mail in the series
is selectively indexed. |
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Series III. Other Papers, 1922-84 (bulk 1946-84), 49 boxes |
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A valuable resource in studying Lillian Hellman’s life is her appointment
books. These volumes, with two early exceptions, cover the years 1956 to
1984 and were consistently maintained, recording her social contacts and
day-to-day activities. |
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Hellman notebooks found in the series are in the main notes for or of foreign
travel between 1944 and 1980, containing notations ranging from mundane to
do lists to sharp observations of people and places. The notebooks kept in
Russia and Yugoslavia in the 1940s and in Washington and the Near East in
1963 and ’64 record thoughts and scenes which found their way into some of
Hellman’s periodical articles. |
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Dashiell Hammett, both as a writer and as a political figure, is
well-represented in the clippings and scrapbooks of this series. Two
scrapbooks are devoted to coverage of his writing career between 1929 and
1950, and several folders of post-1950 clippings are concerned with his
political and creative life. |
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Series IV. Legal and Financial Papers, 1942-84 (bulk 1961-84), 12
boxes |
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The documents and correspondence concerning Lillian Hellman’s acquisition and
administration of Dashiell Hammett’s literary estate fill two boxes in the
series. Here a considerable amount of information on foreign and domestic
publication and on non-literary use of Hammett’s works and characters may be
gleaned, together with Hellman’s consistent effort to shape public
perception of Hammett in her dealings with publishers, filmmakers, and
biographers. Also included in the series are files created by the law firm
of O’Dwyer and Bernstien on behalf of Lillian Hellman which were
subsequently turned over to her. |
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Series V. Works by and Papers of Others, 1934-84, 4 boxes |
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The series includes a group of materials relating to Dorothy Parker evidently
acquired by Hellman in the period in which she, Hellman, was Parker’s
literary executor. Found here is a small amount of miscellaneous
correspondence, and several manuscripts, including the original handwritten
manuscript of "New York at 6:30 P.M.," sent by former Esquire editor Harold Hayes to Hellman in 1974. |
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The materials assembled by federal government agencies concerning Lillian
Hellman include, in folder 119.3, copies of letters the originals of which
exist in Miss Hellman’s correspondence files. Examples are letters written
to her in the late 1960s by Elena Golisheva and Grigori Kozintsev. |
