This is not intended as a lecture on the intersection of lifestyles and ideology, but Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman look stunning in the photo, and one cannot overlook the affluent lifestyle and "taste for finer things" which they shared, alongside their commitment to communism (for which he spent six months in prison in 1951), which is to say, a commitment to not selling out that also seemed to quiet Hammett's writing – yes, he despised the commercialization of the crime fiction genre - as Hellman's output increased.
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Output and inspiration may or may not be related, as our beliefs intersect with our fear of losing uniqueness, which is to say being set apart by things we both imagined and create, while also hoping not to get left out of the good life.
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Before turning forty, Lillian Hellman had discovered the writing life could be very profitable. She owned two, very spacious homes, each purchased by income she earned from writing. One house was just two blocks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the heart of the fashionable Upper East Side that she loved. The house featured a duplex that she rented out, a triplex for her own use, a basement apartment for a resident superintendent, and two sixth-floor maid’s rooms.
The ability to purchase the labor of others is critical for women trying to work in the United States. Even more so for mothers. This is not to say that Hellman should be poor or that prosperity should be limited to capitalism classisms, but only to ask, instead, what it means to live in a country where a health crisis or chronic illness can result in bankruptcy.