[hel-muh
n] 
| Lillian Florence, 1905–84, U.S. playwright. |
| Hell·man (hěl'mən) American playwright whose works concern sensitive political and social issues, such as lesbianism in The Children's Hour (1934) and interracial relations in Toys in the Attic (1960). |
A twentieth-century American playwright and memoirist. Her plays, such as The Children's Hour and Toys in the Attic, often deal with controversial social and psychological themes. Hellman's memoirs include Pentimento and Scoundrel Time, an account of the anti-communist witch hunts of the 1950s.