Dashiell Hammett by Sally Cline

Author:Sally Cline
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Published: 2014-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

PART FOUR

HELLMAN AND HOLLYWOOD, 1934–1936

CHAPTER 10

Lily wrote. Dash edited. Homestead, Florida, was ablaze with activity. And rows. Long days. Hard nights. Dash ripped up page after page. “He tore them to pieces,” Lily said later. The fight was over The Children’s Hour. “There was a great deal at stake, great deal of feeling at stake.”

Dash staked their whole relationship on the fact that he wanted Lily “to be some good.” He was “pleased and proud” when she was. His constant criticisms came from his belief that Lily was “good enough to fix things.” On an early draft, Lily wrote, “he spared me nothing.”

Hammett forced her to rewrite dialogue, use fewer words, shape the structure. Never give up.

Hellman whined that she wanted to give up. “Don’t be a writer,” he baited her. “Nobody asked you to be a writer. This is what it costs.” She whined some more. “If you never write again,” he said coldly, “what difference will it make?” Try again. She tried again. They were both worn out.

She attempted to intimidate him into sparing her. “If this isn’t any good, I’ll never write again. I may even kill myself.” 1 He did not spare her. She did not die. The disciplined work went on. She called him “teacher.” She was not unhappy. She would have other critics but none as sharp. She would have other audiences but none as necessary.

One of Dashiell’s most appealing characteristics was his generosity toward other writers. What he downplayed was his sense of shame about his own inability to write. The writer’s block seemed to have settled into his spirit and could not be shaken off. Over the months, it got steadily worse until he wrote to Lily a poor attempt at a joke, with the typing diagonally down the page like a poem, admitting, “What little imagination I’ve got is used up.” 2 He felt as if he had suffered a stroke. He thought the writing side of his brain had become paralyzed.

Lily was grateful for his constant attention, but her savage yet kind mentor was simultaneously playing the fond father and affectionate, absentee husband. Dash wrote two loving letters to Jose and a gentle one to Josephine and Mary, telling them he had gained weight, had managed ten days on the wagon, was suntanned, felt better than for years, was becoming expert at deep-sea fishing. He planned to return to Homestead next year but promised to come and see them first. He sent them kisses. He did not mention Lily or Lily’s play.

But the play preoccupied him. The Great Drumsheugh Case concerned a Scottish girls’ boarding school forced to close in 1810 because a mixed-race schoolgirl lied about her two headmistresses, who were subsequently accused of lesbianism. The girl’s grandmother believed the accusation and influenced parents to withdraw their children. When the teachers sued for libel, the case dragged on for ten years. When they were finally exonerated by the House of Lords, their lives had been destroyed. 3

Hellman relocated the story to New England, changed and added to the plot.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.