Ben Hecht Summary

A leading American journalist and playwright, Ben Hecht (1894-1964) became Hollywood's most prolific and sought-after scriptwriter of his time.Ben Hecht was born on February 28, 1894, in New York City... Read more

Ben Hecht, journalist, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, was one of the major figures of the Chicago Renaissance, a reporter of the Chicago scene par excellence. Born on New York's Lower East Side i... Read more

Ben Hecht was one of the most successful screenwriters in the history of motion pictures. In a career that spanned forty years, Hecht was credited with writing the screen stories or screenplays for... Read more

Ben Hecht began his career as a writer in 1910, at the age of sixteen, when he became a reporter for the Chicago Journal. His four years at the Journal and the nine years he spent with the Chicago Da... Read more

In the following essay, Hansen presents biographical information and personal recollections of Hecht, finding such literary influences in Hecht's fiction as Wyndham Lewis, James Joyce, and Dost... Read more

In the following essay, Parry examines the writers and cultural mileau of post-World War I Chicago. The notoriety of Greenwich Village in the late 1910s was spreading among other places to Chicago. To... Read more

In the following essay, Felheim finds evidence that Hecht was influenced by Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer. I Writing a review of A Treasury of Ben Hecht (1959) in The New Republic for September 28 of... Read more

In the following essay, Epstein assesses Hecht as more interesting as an individual than significant as a writer. Nowadays, as the media boys down at the ad agency are likely to tell you, the name Ben... Read more