SOURCE: Ward, Robert. “As Good as Their Words.” Los Angeles Times Book Review (1 April 1990): 1, 7.

In the following review, Ward asserts that Hamilton's Writers in Hollywood is an enjoyable read and provides a good general introduction to the history of Hollywood screenwriting.

Ian Hamilton, author of the definitive biography of Robert Lowell, is having fun this time out.

Obviously no book that is only 330 pages long and covers the history of motion pictures from 1915 to 1951, can hope to do justice to its subject. Writers in Hollywood must be seen as a sort of primer on the subject.

If you want to learn something about the writer in the silent era, Hamilton's got a chapter or two for you. If you're interested in the man they called “The Writing Machine,” Ben Hecht, there are more than a few good anecdotes and some interesting discussions about the way Hecht and his...