Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures

A vibrant portrait of one of the most accomplished and prolific American screenwriters, by an award-winning biographer and essayist

He was, according to Pauline Kael, the greatest American screenwriter. Jean-Luc Godard called him a genius who invented 80 percent of what is used in Hollywood movies today. Besides tossing off dozens of now-classic scriptsincluding Scarface,Twentieth Century, and NotoriousBen Hecht was known in his day as ace reporter, celebrated playwright, taboo-busting novelist, and the most quick-witted of provocateurs. During World War II, he also emerged as an outspoken crusader for the imperiled Jews of Europe, and later he became a fierce propagandist for pre-1948 Palestines Jewish terrorist underground. Whatever the outrage he stirred, this self-declared child of the century came to embody much that defined Americaespecially Jewish Americain his time.
 
Hecht's fame has dimmed with the decades, but Adina Hoffmans vivid portrait brings this charismatic and contradictory figure back to life on the page. Hecht was a renaissance man of dazzling sorts, and Hoffmancritically acclaimed biographer, former film critic, and eloquent commentator on Middle Eastern culture and politicsis uniquely suited to capture him in all his modes.