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3 books match the query 'Hecht, Ben'

cover of A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago

A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago

Ben Hecht

University of Chicago Press, 1992

In 1921, Ben Hecht wrote a column for the Chicago Daily News that his editor called “journalism extraordinary; journalism that invaded the realm of literature.” Hecht’s collection of sixty-four of these pieces, illustrated with striking pen drawings by Herman Rosse, is a timeless caricature of urban American life in the jazz age, updated with a new Introduction for the twenty-first century. From the glittering opulence of Michigan Avenue to the darkest ruminations of an escaped convict, from captains of industry to immigrant day laborers, Hecht captures 1920s Chicago in all its furor, intensity, and absurdity.

“The hardboiled audacity and wit that became Hecht’s signature as Hollywood’s most celebrated screen-writer are conspicuous in these vignettes. Most of them are comic and sardonic, some strike muted tragic or somber atmospheric notes. . . . The best are timeless character sketches that have taken on an added interest as shards of social history.”—L. S. Klepp, Voice Literary Supplement

 

 

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cover of A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago

A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago

Ben Hecht

University of Chicago Press, 2009

In 1921, Ben Hecht wrote a column for the Chicago Daily News that his editor called “journalism extraordinary; journalism that invaded the realm of literature.” Hecht’s collection of sixty-four of these pieces, illustrated with striking pen drawings by Herman Rosse, is a timeless caricature of urban American life in the jazz age, updated with a new Introduction for the twenty-first century. From the glittering opulence of Michigan Avenue to the darkest ruminations of an escaped convict, from captains of industry to immigrant day laborers, Hecht captures 1920s Chicago in all its furor, intensity, and absurdity.

“The hardboiled audacity and wit that became Hecht’s signature as Hollywood’s most celebrated screen-writer are conspicuous in these vignettes. Most of them are comic and sardonic, some strike muted tragic or somber atmospheric notes. . . . The best are timeless character sketches that have taken on an added interest as shards of social history.”—L. S. Klepp, Voice Literary Supplement

 

 

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cover of Ben Hecht's Theatre of Jewish Protest

Ben Hecht's Theatre of Jewish Protest

Garrett Eisler

Rutgers University Press, 2025

Ben Hecht is most remembered as a famous Hollywood screenwriter and Broadway playwright, but only recently has his extensive Jewish activism during the Holocaust and its aftermath received scholarly attention. Unlike other, more expansive Hecht biographies, this book focuses in depth on his Jewish political theatre, drawing on extensive archival research of four dramas: We Will Never Die (1943), A Jewish Fairy Tale (1944), A Flag Is Born (1946), and The Terrorist (1947). Garrett Eisler's readings of these little-known (and out of print) texts reclaim them as pivotal to the history of Jewish American drama, being among the first works of U.S. theatre to address the Holocaust. The full texts of all four works are republished here for the first time, along with production details and full performance histories.

Hecht introduced a new heroic Jewish identity to the American stage, one that challenged popular stereotypes of villainy or weakness. This powerful and (still) controversial body of work stands as a striking testament to the power of theatre to rise to the moment. The book also features a supporting cast of famous collaborators on these projects, including Paul Muni, Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield, Moss Hart, Kurt Weill, and a young Marlon Brando. In their use of the stage to aggressively engage with history as it was happening, the story of Hecht and his colleagues is a compelling case of artists who made a difference.
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