Ben Hecht
From Illinois Authors
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General Information
Pen Name: None
Born: February 28, 1894 in New York City
Died: April 18, 1964 in New York City
Celebrated on the Illinois State Library, Gwendolyn Brooks Building
"A reader is a critic with a very fine and important job- to please himself. It is, however, his job, not mine." - Ben Hecht
Illinois Connection
John worked at Chicago Journal, Chicago Daily News, and Chicago Literary Times between 1910 and 1924.
Biographical and Professional Information
Ben Hecht worked as a reporter in Chicago. He was also an author, Broadway playwright and prolific Hollywood screenwriter. He was nominated six times for the Academy Award, winning twice, in 1929 and in 1936.
Ben Hecht moved from journalism to a successful career as a novelist, playwright and screenwriter. As a writer for the Chicago Daily News, he wrote a columnthat became the basis for the collection of sketches, A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago (1922). Hecht's greatest theatrical success was The Front Page (1928), written with Charles MacArthur and set in a Chicago newsroom. The play set the image of the tough, wisecracking newspaperman for decades. Moving to Hollywood, Hecht wrote, co-wrote or adapted some of the most successful movies of the 1930s, including the film version of The Front Page (1931), Nothing Sacred (1937), Gunga Din (1938) and Wuthering Heights (1939). Some of Hecht's liveliest writing about his Chicago years appears in Gaily, Gaily (1963; filmed in 1969), Letters from Bohemia (1946) and his autobiography, Child of the Century (1954).
Published Works
- The Florentine Dagger: A Novel for Amateur Detectives, Boni and Liveright Publishers, 1923
- Broken Necks, Pascal Covici, 1926
- A Jew in Love, Friede Covici, 1931
- The Champion From Far Away, Friede Covici, 1936
- Actor's Blood, Friede Covici, 1936
- Count Bruga, Avon books, 1943
- Miracle in the Rain, Alfred A. Knopf, 1943
- I Hate Actors!, Crown Publishers, 1944
- The Collected Stories of Ben Hecht, Crown Publishers, 1945
- Concerning a Woman of Sin and Other Stories, Avon, 1947
- A Treasury of Ben Hecht, Collected Stories and Other Writings, Crown Publishers, 1959
- The Sensualist, Dell, 1959
- Letters From Bohemia, Doubleday, 1963
- Gaily, Gaily, Doubleday, 1963
- A Child of the Century, Simon & Schuster, 1954
- Kingdom Of Evil, Ayer Co. Pub, 1987
- Perfidy, Milah Press, 1997
- A Guide for the Bedevilled, Milah Press, 1999
- The Front Page, Smith & Kraus Pub Inc, 2002
- Fantazuis Mallare, A Mysterious Oath, Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007
- My Story, Taylor Trade, 2007
- A Thousand and One Afternoon's In Chicago, IndyPublish, 2007
- Gargoyles, Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007
- Erik Dorn, IndyPublish, 2008
Titles for Purchase and at Your Library
Concerning a Woman of SinISBN: 0583114369 Release Date: 1969-04 |
 | Letters from BohemiaISBN: 1121758010 Release Date: 1964 |
The Kingdom of Evil: A Continuation of the Journal of Fantazius MallareISBN: 0405081391 Release Date: 1987-06 |
 | A Child of the CenturyISBN: 091765742X Release Date: 1985-05-30 |
 | My StoryISBN: 0739483773 Release Date: 2007 |
 | Erik DornISBN: 1435390997 Release Date: 2008-02-12 |
Literary Awards
In 1990, his name was engraved on the frieze of the Illinois State Library alongside other great Illinois literary figures.
External Links
Editing
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