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Lillian Hellman: WATCH ON THE RHINE- Limited Edition
Hellman, Lillian forward by Dorothy Parker: WATCH ON THE RHINE, A Play in Three Acts.
New York: Privately published, 1942. Limited edition. No 231 of 349 published to benefit Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee. Illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg, Don Freeman, Donald Gelb, William Gropper, Bejamin Kopman, Hans Mueller, Luis Quintanilla, Philip Reisman, William Sharp, Lawrence Beall Smith and Rockwell Kent.
Born in New Orleans, Lillian Hellman moved to New York; she attended New York University and Columbia. She was twice awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Prize and the Gold Medal for drama from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Her plays are commonly described with labels such as "well-made play," "melodrama," "social protest." But her real achievement is an ironic look at life, at times funny, at times pathetic, and always incorporating a moral vision.
Watch on the Rhine opened in April 1941 at the Martin Beck Theatre, ran for 378 performances, and won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award as best American play of the year. In 1943, its film version was selected as best movie of the year by the New York Film Critics.
Hellman drew extensively from her life for her work. For The Little Foxes, she used her knowledge of the American South and her own family. She got even with the Newhouses (her mother's family), by depicting them as the Hubbards in both The Little Foxes and Another Part of the Forest. More seriously, she spent her life writing plays through which she tried to speak about problems found in her time. For example, The Children's Hour, with a plot about careers being ruined over lies, spoke to everything happening during the McCarthy Era. Days to Come from 1936, about unions and strikebreaking, was seen as political by audiences, even though Hellman said it was meant to depict the struggle between individuals. Either way, she used the entire world and its people as subject matter for her plays. Additionally, The North Star from 1943, was a film about Russia. Also, Watch on the Rhine and The Searching Wind (1944), spoke about the battle with fascism and the response (or lack thereof) to the issues of World War II by middle-class Americans. Hellman also took on this subject matter outside of writing, seeking contributions for the Emergency Anti-Fascist Refugee Fund and allowing the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee to publish a limited edition of Watch on the Rhine for its benefit. Later in her life, in 1970, she founded the Committee for Public Justice, which was to "create an early-warning system that would detect violations of constitutional rights and then alert citizens, the media, and legislators about them" From http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pa l/chap8/hellman.html
Near Fine in Slipcase. Off-setting to endpapers at hinges due to binding process. Lower edges lightly soiled. A few faded spots on front board. Even so, a nice, tight copy. Slipcase edge worm and bumped. Separating at edges, good only.
$300.00
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