| 1905 |
June 20 |
Lillian Florence Hellman is born in New Orleans, the daughter of a shoe salesman. |
| 1922 |
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Hellman begins her studies at New York University. |
| 1924 |
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She transfers to Columbia University. |
| 1925 |
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She drops out of school and begins reviewing books for the New York Herald Tribune. |
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She marries playwright and press agent Arthur Kober. |
| 1930 |
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Hellman takes a job as a script-reader by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Hollywood. |
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She meets and falls in love with mystery writer Dashiell Hammett. |
| 1932 |
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She divorces Arthur Kober. |
| 1934 |
November 20 |
The Children's Hour opens at Maxine Elliott's Theatre on Broadway. The play shocks audiences with its frank treatment of lesbianism. It enjoys a run of 691 performances. |
| 1936 |
December 15 |
Days to Come opens at the Vanderbilt Theatre on Broadway. It closes after only 7 performances. |
| 1939 |
February 13 |
The Little Foxes opens at the National Theatre on Broadway. It enjoys a run of 410 performances. |
| 1941 |
April 1 |
Watch on the Rhine opens at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway. It earns Hellman the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. |
| 1942 |
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Hellman receives an Academy Award nomination for her screenplay adaptation of The Little Foxes (1941). |
| 1944 |
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Hellman receives an Academy Award nomination for her screenplay The North Star (1943). |
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April 12 |
The Searching Wind opens at the Fulton Theatre on Broadway. |
| 1946 |
November 20 |
Another Part of the Forest opens at the Fulton Theatre on Broadway. Hellman directs the play herself. |
| 1949 |
October 29 |
Montserrat, adapted from a French play by Emmanuel Robles, opens at the Fulton Theatre on Broadway. Again, Hellman directs the play herself. |
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October 31 |
Regina, a musical version of The Little Foxes, opens at the 46th Street Theatre on Broadway. |
| 1951 |
March 7 |
The Autumn Garden opens at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway. |
| 1952 |
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Hellman is subpoenaed to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Pressured to reveal the names of associates in the theatre who might have Communist associations, she refuses, writing, "I will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions." |
| 1956 |
December 1 |
Candide, with a libretto by Hellman, opens at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway. It wins a Tony Award for Best Musical. |
| 1960 |
February 25 |
Toys in the Attic opens at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway. It earns Hellman a Tony Award for Best Play and enjoys a run of 556 performances. |
| 1961 |
January 10 |
Hellman's lover, Dashiell Hammett, dies of lung cancer. |
| 1963 |
March 21 |
My Mother, My Father and Me, based on a book by Burt Blechman, opens at the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway. It closes after only 17 performances. |
| 1964 |
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Hellman receives the Gold Medal for Drama from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. |
| 1969 |
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She publishes her first volume of memoirs, An Unfinished Woman. It wins a National Book Award for autobiography but comes under fire from some critics who suggest she has invented or borrowed from other sources many of the incidents in this "autobiography". |
| 1973 |
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She publishes her second volume of memoirs, Pentimento. |
| 1976 |
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She publishes her third volume of memoirs, Scoundrel Time. |
| 1984 |
June 30 |
Lillian Hellman dies of cardiac arrest at her home in Martha's Vineyard. |
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