Just Words: Lillian Hellman, Mary McCarthy, and the Failure of Public Conversation in America - Historical Literary Analysis Book for American Culture Studies, Political Discourse & Feminist Literature Enthusiasts - Perfect for Book Clubs, Academic Research & Political Science Discussions

In an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show in 1980, the critic Mary McCarthy glibly remarked that every word author Lillian Hellman wrote was a lie, "including 'and' and 'the.'" Hellman immediately filed a libel suit, charging that McCarthy's comment was not a legitimate conversation on public issues but an attack on her reputation. This intriguing book offers a many-faceted examination of Hellman's infamous suit and explores what it tells us about tensions between privacy and self-expression, freedom and restraint in public language, and what can and cannot be said in public in America.