Hansberry, Lorraine
Entry updated 13 December 2021. Tagged: Author, Theatre.
(1930-1965) US playwright best known for her nonfantastic drama A Raisin in the Sun (performed 1959; 1959). She is of sf interest for "What Use Are Flowers?", assembled in Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays of Lorraine Hansberry (coll 1972). Set in a desolate landscape probably subsequent to World War Three, the play focuses on a small rabble of children, who in a feral state – like those in William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954) – express their naked human nature through savage conflicts. A hermit comes across them and attempts homiletically to restore civilization (see Education in SF). He hopes he foresees a positive outcome. [JC]
Lorraine Vivian Hansberry
born Chicago, Illinois: 19 May 1930
died New York: 12 January 1965
works (selected)
- A Raisin in the Sun (New York: Random House, 1959) [play: first performed 11 March 1959 Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York: hb/]
- Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays of Lorraine Hansberry (New York: Random House, 1972) [coll: contains "What Use Are Flowers?": hb/]
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