A Difficult Woman by Alice Kessler-Harris


ISBN
9781596913639
Published
Binding
Hardcover
Pages
448
Dimensions
156 x 235mm

Lillian Hellman was a giant of twentieth-century letters and a groundbreaking figure as one of the most successful female playwrights on Broadway. Yet the author of The Little Foxes and Toys in the Attic is today remembered more as a toxic, bitter survivor and literary fabulist, the woman of whom Mary McCarthy said, 'Every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'.' In A Difficult Woman, renowned historian Alice Kessler-Harris undertakes a feat few would dare to attempt: a reclamation of a combative, controversial woman who straddled so many political and cultural fault lines of her time.

Kessler-Harris renders Hellman's feisty wit and personality in all of its contradictions: as a non-Jewish Jew, a displaced Southerner, a passionate political voice without a party, an artist immersed in commerce, a sexually free woman who scorned much of the women's movement, a loyal friend whose trust was often betrayed, and a writer of memoirs who repeatedly questioned the possibility of achieving truth and doubted her memory.

Hellman was a writer whose plays spoke the language of morality yet whose achievements foundered on accusations of mendacity. Above all else, she was a woman who made her way in a man's world. Kessler-Harris has crafted a nuanced life of Hellman, empathetic yet unsparing, that situates her in the varied contexts in which she moved, from New Orleans to Broadway to the hearing room of HUAC. A Difficut Woman is a major work of literary and intellectual history. This will be one of the most reviewed, and most acclaimed, books of 2012.
EOFY 2025 Book Frenzy
33.99
RRP: $39.99
15% off RRP


This product is unable to be ordered online. Please check in-store availability.
Instore Price: $39.99
A Difficult Woman is Out of Print

Other Titles by Alice Kessler-Harris

In Pursuit of Equity
39.99
33.99
15% Off

You might also like

One Day At A Time
35.99
29.99
17% Off
Till Death Do Us Part
36.99
29.99
19% Off
Three Women
22.99
19.54
15% Off
The Trauma Cleaner
24.99
21.24
15% Off
The Good Daughter
34.99
29.74
15% Off
Uses for Obsession
34.99
29.74
15% Off
The Tell
36.99
31.44
15% Off
Maid
22.99
19.54
15% Off
The Next Day
36.99
30.99
16% Off
Question 7
35.00
29.75
15% Off
Sassafras
34.99
29.74
15% Off
Strong Female Character
24.99
21.24
15% Off
Uptown Girl A Memoir
36.99
31.44
15% Off
Matriarch
34.99
29.74
15% Off

RRP refers to the Recommended Retail Price as set out by the original publisher at time of release.
The RRP set by overseas publishers may vary to those set by local publishers due to exchange rates and shipping costs.
Due to our competitive pricing, we may have not sold all products at their original RRP.