About the Program
Alice Kessler-Harris, American history professor at Columbia University, recounts the life of playwright and political activist Lillian Hellman (1905-1984). She was the author of numerous politically and socially infused plays, including The Children's Hour and Little Foxes. The author reports that Ms. Hellman was an unapologetic leftist who refused to supply names upon her testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee; she wrote to the Committee in 1952, "I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit the year's fashion." Alice Kessler-Harris speaks at Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida.