Pentimento: A Book of Portraits — Lillian Hellman (Little, Brown, 1973)

Author: Lillian Hellman
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, Boston & Toronto
Copyright: 1973
Printing: Second Printing (T09/73)
Format: Hardcover with dust jacket
Condition: Book Very Good Plus; dust jacket Good with some closed tears, now protected in Brodart archival cover.

Pentimento is Lillian Hellman’s celebrated collection of autobiographical portraits—not a linear memoir, but a series of vivid, reflective sketches of people and moments that shaped her life. The title refers to the painter’s technique of revealing earlier images beneath a finished surface, an apt metaphor for Hellman’s method of revisiting memory with honesty, revision, and moral complexity.

The portraits include artists, political figures, friends, adversaries, and intimates, written with Hellman’s characteristic sharp intelligence and emotional restraint. Several essays originally appeared in The Atlantic, Esquire, and The New York Review of Books, and together they form one of the most influential literary memoirs of the 20th century.

This edition is particularly appealing as a physical object: the stark black dust jacket with elegant typography has become iconic, and the presence of the jacket—despite some tears—significantly enhances its collectibility. The book itself is clean, solid, and very well preserved, with the jacket stabilized and protected for long-term care.

A powerful work of memory, ethics, and literary craft, Pentimento remains essential reading for those interested in American letters, political conscience, and the art of autobiography.

Why You’ll Want This Copy

• One of the most important literary memoirs of the 20th century

• By a major American playwright and cultural figure

• Original dust jacket present and protected

• Clean, Very Good Plus interior