Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
“A fascinating and highly original contribution that will interest anyone who cares about media, as well as cultural and intellectual history”--Susan Jacoby Donna M. Fisher - Law Library Journal
Review
"When Mary McCarthy said on the Dick Cavett Show that every word Lillian Hellman wrote was a lie, including and#8216;andand#8217; and and#8216;the,and#8217; was she making a literal statement subject to verification? Producing a hyperbolic remark not meant to be takenandnbsp;seriously? Standing up for truth in a world corrupted by political fabrication? Or insisting on a standard of libel the Supreme Court had moved away from? These are just a few of the questions that Alan Ackerman teases out of this fabled incident in a book that demonstrates how an initially narrow focus can flower into a meditation on the deepest things."and#8212;Stanley Fish
Review
"Lillian Hellman sued Mary McCarthy for libel over a single sentence. Starting with the facts of this case, Ackerman zooms in to scrutinize the meaning of language, the law of defamation, the nature of privacy, the lives and works of the two writers, and, perhaps most important, the political and cultural quarrels of an age, many of which remain with us."and#8212;Stephen Gillers, New York University School of Law
Review
“The Book ‘challenges assumptions and raises questions… on the face of it, the premise of ‘Just Words is an interesting one.” — Barton Swaim, The Wall Street Journal Barton Swaim
Review
and#8220;For all its roots in the deep past, Ackerman shows [that] the libel case . . . points the way forward to Americaand#8217;s present uncivil discourse . . . U.S. public conversation is now a full-contact sport.and#8221;and#8212;Brian Bethune, Macleans
Review
“Ackerman does an admirable job of tying this case to the great issues of the mid-twentieth century. He uses Hellman and McCarthy as a pretext for fascinating digressions about John Deweys commission on Leon Trotsky, the history of Latin instruction in America, and the cultures attitude toward abortion in the 1930s.”—Franklin Foer, The New Republic
Review
"A worthy exploration of the conflicts created when issues of free speech, publicity, and privacy intersect. The book will make a welcome addition to both general academic and law school libraries."—Donna M. Fisher, Law Library Journal
Review
and#8220;A fascinating and highly original contribution that will interest anyone who cares about media, as well as cultural and intellectual historyand#8221;--Susan Jacoby
Synopsis
Focusing on Lillian Hellman's infamous 1980 libel suit against Mary McCarthy for her scornful comments on The Dick Cavett Show, this book explores the roles of truth and lying in American public life and considers why civil discourse seems beyond our reach.
About the Author
Alan Ackerman is professor of English, University of Toronto. His books include Seeing Things, from Shakespeare to Pixar and The Portable Theater: American Literature and the Nineteenth-Century Stage, and he is editor of the journal Modern Drama.