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others struggle to free themselvesfrom the burdens of thepast. Other of Miller’s dramasinclude two one-act plays, Fame(1970) and The Reason Why (1970).His essays are collected in EchoesDown the Corridor (2000); his autobiography,Timebends: A Life,appeared in 1987.Lillian Hellman (1906-1984)Like Robert Penn Warren, LillianHellman’s moral vision was shapedby the South. Her childhood waslargely spent in New Orleans. Hercompelling plays explore power’smany guises and abuses. In TheChildren’s Hour (l934), a manipulativegirl destroys the lives of twowomen teachers by telling peoplethey are lesbians. In The LittleFoxes (1939), a rich old southernfamily fights over an inheritance.Hellman’s anti-fascist Watch on theRhine (1941) grew out of her tripsto Europe in the l930s. Her memoirsinclude An Unfinished Woman(l969) and Pentimento (1973).For many years, Hellman had aclose personal relationship withthe remarkable scriptwriterDashiell Hammett, whose streetwisedetective character, SamSpade, fascinated Depression-eraAmericans. Hammett invented thequintessentially American hardboileddetective novel: The MalteseFalcon (l930); The Thin Man(1934).Hellman, like Arthur Miller, hadrefused to “name names” for theHouse Un-American ActivitiesCommittee, and she and HammettTENNESSEE WILLIAMSPhoto © Nancy Cramptonwere blacklisted (refused employmentin the American entertainmentindustry) for a time. Theseevents are recounted in Hellman’smemoir, Scoundrel Time (1976).Tennessee Williams(1911-1983)Tennessee Williams, a nativeof Mississippi, was one of themore complex individuals onthe American literary scene of themid-20th century. His work focusedon disturbed emotions within families— most of them southern. Hewas known for incantatory repetitions,a poetic southern diction,weird gothic settings, and Freudianexploration of human emotion. Oneof the first American writers to liveopenly as a homosexual, Williamsexplained that the longings of histormented characters expressedtheir loneliness. His characters liveand suffer intensely.Williams wrote more than 20 fulllengthdramas, many of them autobiographical.He reached his peakrelatively early in his career — inthe 1940s — with The GlassMenagerie (1944) and A StreetcarNamed Desire (1949). None of theworks that followed over the nexttwo decades and more reached thelevel of success and richness ofthose two pieces.Katherine Anne Porter(1890-1980)Katherine Anne Porter’s long lifeand career encompassed severaleras. Her first success, the shortstory “Flowering Judas” (1929),99