The romance between two gifted American authors, Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett, is given rebirth in the biography Joan Mellen has written after their deaths. Hellman's four volumes of memoirs, plus her restrictions on biographies written while she was still alive, actually obscured the true story of her and Hammett's thirty plus years together.

Although they were never married to each other, Lily and Dash's sex life, not always with each other, was not much of a secret. In their first live-in years together, Lily resented his infidelity, even though she was sexually promiscuous herself. A part of her wanted motherhood, yet her pregnancies by different lovers she always had aborted. Dash finally refused any further sexual relationships with her, but they still needed each other, for more than their common writing interest. Lillian freely gave Dash much of the credit for the plays, The Children's Hour and The Little foxes.

But his own writing, such as The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man, came to an end after they met. He preferred to either edit or improve Lily's playwriting, or to get drunk and visit a Harlem whorehouse.

Another interest they both shared in the 1930s was active participation in the Communist Party. Then years later during the HUAC and McCarthy hearings, they were both questioned about this at different times. Dashiell, even though he had been an American soldier in both world wars, was sent to prison for a number of months. Lillian later claimed she had tried to pay his bail, but this turned out to be untrue.

In Hellman and Hammett Joan Mellen doesn't let up exposing Lillian's lies, either. In fact, she supports the information in her lengthy biography with 187 pages of notes and bibliography at the end.

The only thing that keeps this book from being exceptional is the loose and confusing paragraphs or the poor editing.