From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a vibrant portrait of Ben Hecht, one of the most accomplished and prolific American screenwriters “Adina Hoffman's superb [book] . . . loads Hecht's staggering contradictions into a compact but abounding two hundred twenty pages. . . . She writes with enormous flair.”—David Denby, New Yorker “To boil down such a profuse, not to say verbose, career, into so compact a volume was a challenge, but [Hoffman] has achieved much more than elegant concision. . . . She makes contact with a living personality, creating a portrait both sympathetic and clear-eyed.”—Geoffrey O'Brien, New York Review of Books 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 scripts—including Scarface, Twentieth Century, and Notorious —Ben 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 Palestine’s Jewish terrorist underground. Whatever the outrage he stirred, this self-declared “child of the century” came to embody much that defined America—especially Jewish America—in his time. Hecht's fame has dimmed with the decades, but Adina Hoffman’s vivid portrait brings this charismatic and contradictory figure back to life on the page. Hecht was a renaissance man of dazzling sorts, and Hoffman—critically acclaimed biographer, former film critic, and eloquent commentator on Middle Eastern culture and politics—is uniquely suited to capture him in all his modes.   About Jewish Lives: Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of interpretative biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences. Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present. In 2014, the Jewish Book Council named Jewish Lives the winner of its Jewish Book of the Year Award, the first series ever to receive this award. More praise for Jewish Lives: “Excellent.”— New York Times “Exemplary.”— Wall St. Journal “Distinguished.”— New Yorker “Superb.”— The Guardian "Adina Hoffman's superb [book]... loads Hecht's staggering contradictions into a compact but abounding two hundred twenty pages.... She writes with enormous flair."—David Denby, New Yorker "Engrossing . . . Hecht . . . is due a revival, and this short, striking biography could provide it. Like him, it’s playful, punchy and moves at a real clip."—Ed Potton, The Times "A screenwriter hoping to serve up a punchy opening scene could hardly do better than the first paragraph of Adina Hoffman's new biography of Ben Hecht . . . The opening credits have barely rolled (so to speak) and we already know that the book is a very unusual sort of Hollywood biography, one about a man who sought a role on the world stage that extended far beyond having written 'Scarface.' The story that Hoffman proceeds to tell—her account of what she vividly describes as Hecht's 'long, slaphappy career'—is little known today, a fact that would have surprised plenty of people when he died in 1964 . . . Sorting through [his] contradictions is . . . the task she sets for herself . . . It's a big job for such a slender book, but Hoffman . . . has the grip--the historical, cultural and human frame of reference--required to see Hecht whole."—Jeremy McCarter, Wall Street Journal “Hugely readable.”—Danny Leigh, Financial Times “Hecht’s life was extraordinary, his writing is (mostly) a tonic, his films are (in the main) dazzling, and Hoffman has brilliantly caught his restless, contradictory quality in crystalline prose. Her analysis of his Jewishness is nothing short of a revelation.”—Simon Callow, Sunday Times "Sensitive and incisive. . . . To boil down such a profuse, not to say verbose, career, into so compact a volume was a challenge, but [Hoffman] has achieved much more than elegant concision. Alert to the wiles and intricacies of someone who savored his own contradictions, she makes contact with a living personality, creating a portrait both sympathetic and clear-eyed."—Geoffrey O'Brien, New York Review of Books  "[A] precise and lively portrait . . . Each phase in Hecht's adventures is electrifying . . . Hoffman's concentrated biography is smartly entertaining and revelatory."— Booklist (starred review) “Lively, well-researched . . . A clear-eyed portrait of an impetuous and multi-talented man.”— Kirkus Reviews "In the latest entry in Yale's excellent 'Jewish Lives' series . . .