Scoundrel Time by Lillian Hellman - First Edition, 1976 - Vintage Book, Joe McCarthy Era, Communism

In this first edition of Scoundrel Time, Lillian Hellman tells her story of the McCarthy era.

Written by Lillian Hellman. Stated first edition, April 1976. Little, Brown & Company.

Front flap:

"Lillian Hellman's memoir of the witch-hunting, black-listing years of the 1950s and her involvement with them. ..."

Hellman (1905 - 1984) was a playwright - Watch on the Rhine, The Autumn Garden, Toys in the Attic, Another Part of the Forest, The Children's Hour, The Little Foxes - and political activist, and remains controversial to this day for her association with the Communist Party, or her alleged Stalinism, and her refusal to name names before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and subsequent blacklisting from the Hollywood film industry, along with many other actors, directors, and writers, including Dashiell Hammett.

From the Introduction by Garry Wills, author of Nixon Agonistes:

"In 1952 playwright Lillian Hellman was summoned to testify on her putatively un-American activities before the congressional committee charged with maintaining our Americanism. That was the year when Joseph McCarthy, at the top of his power, was re-elected to the Senate; but she did not appear before his Senate committee. She was summoned by a committee of the lower house - the one which, but its power and long life, became *the* committee of the Cold War period: the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). ...

"Despite her literary stature, she seems an unlikely heroine for that grim time, a blend of sassy kid and Southern lady, scared but defiant in her Balmain "testifying dress". But we must remember that Dashiell Hammett modeled Nora Charles after her in The Thin Man (which Senator McCarthy tried to have removed from our overseas bookshelves). And when a policeman encounters Nora at her most independent, he leaves shaking his head in reluctant admiration and calling her one tough lady. Chairman Wood probably felt like that on the afternoon of May 21, 1952."

"I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions." - Lillian Hellman

Book includes two clippings: New York Times review, April 25, 1976, with quote above hand-written across the top; Time magazine review of Scoundrel Time, May 10, 1976;

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Condition*: Near Fine/Very Good. Dust jacket: Two closed tears on the front; closed tear on the back, at head of the spine; minor edgewear; folds to front and back flaps. Minor edgewear on the bottom edges of the cover boards. Inscribed by owner on half title page.

* Based on Guidelines of the Independent Online Booksellers' Association.