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==Types of Kisses==
{{Infobox Actor
Christopher Nyrop, in his book ''The Kiss and its History'', describes five main types of kisses: kisses of love, affection, peace, respect and friendship. He admitted, however, that the categories were somewhat contrived and overlapping, and other cultures often had more kinds, including the French, with twenty and the Germans with thirty.<ref name=Nyrop>Nyrop, Christoper. ''The Kiss and its History'', Sands & Co., London (1901) [http://books.google.com/books?id=UQgNAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false Read full text]</ref>
| name = Ben Hecht
| image =
| caption = Ben Hecht, 1948
| birthdate = {{birth date|1894|2|28}}
| birthplace = [[New York City, New York]]
| deathdate = {{death date and age|1964|4|18|1894|2|28}}
| deathplace = [[New York City, New York]]
| spouse = Mary Armstrong (1916-1926)<Br>Rose Caylor (1926-1964)
| academyawards = '''[[Academy Award for Best Story|Best Story]]'''<br>1928 ''[[Underworld (1927 film)|Underworld]]''<br>1935 ''[[The Scoundrel]]''
}}


===Kiss of love===
'''Ben Hecht''' ([[February 28]], [[1894]] &ndash; [[April 18]], [[1964]]), was an [[United States|American]] [[Broadway theater|playwright]], [[novelist]] and prolific [[Hollywood, California|Hollywood]] [[screenwriter]]. He was considered ''"the"'' Hollywood screenwriter, someone who "personified Hollywood itself." The ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' refers to him as "one of the most successful screenwriters in the history of motion pictures."
Nyrop discusses the kiss and its importance as the direct expression of love and erotic emotions. He describes the kiss of love as an "exultant message of the longing of love, love eternally young, the burning prayer of hot desire, which is born on the lovers' lips, and 'rises,' as Charles Fuster has said, 'up to the blue sky from the green plains,' like a tender, trembling thank-offering." He adds, that the love kiss, "rich in promise, bestows an intoxicating feeling of infinite happiness, courage, and youth, and therefore surpasses all other earthly joys in sublimity."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|30}} He also compares it to one's achievements in life, "Thus even the highest work of art, yea, the loftiest reputation, is nothing in comparison with the passionate kiss of a woman one loves."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|31}}


The power of a kiss is not minimized when he writes that "we all yearn for kisses and we all seek them; it is idle to struggle against this passion. No one can evade the omnipotence of the kiss. . . ." Kissing, he implies, can lead one to maturity: "It is through kisses that a knowledge of life and happiness first comes to us. Runeberg says that the angels rejoice over the first kiss exchanged by lovers," and can keep one feeling young: "It carries life with it; it even bestows the gift of eternal youth." The importance of the lover's kiss can also be significant, he notes: "In the case of lovers a kiss is everything; that is the reason why a man stakes his all for a kiss," and "man craves for it as his noblest reward."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|37}}
During his 40-year career he wrote screenplays or stories for more than 70 films (20 of which he received no credit for, such as [[Gone with the Wind (film) |''Gone with the Wind'']] and [[Monkey Business (1931 film)|''Monkey Business'']]). His best work was done in collaboration with other writers, including [[Charles MacArthur]] and [[Charles Lederer]], and the only film which he produced, directed, and wrote himself, ''[[Angels Over Broadway]]'' (1940), was Oscar nominated for Best Screenplay. Many of his movie screenplays are now considered "classics", such as [[The Front Page (1931 film)| The Front Page]] (1931) and [[Scarface (1932 film) |Scarface]] (1932), with his movies being nominated six times for the [[Academy Award]], and winning twice.


As a result, kissing as an expression of love is contained in much of literature, old and new. Nyrop gives a vivid example in the classic love story of [[Daphnis and Chloe]]. As a reward "Chloe has bestowed a kiss on Daphnis—an innocent young-maid's kiss, but it has on him the effect of an electrical shock":<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|47}}
He could produce a screenplay in two weeks and, according to his autobiography, never spent more than eight weeks on a script. Yet he was still able to produce mostly rich, well-plotted, and witty screenplays. His scripts included virtually every movie genre: adventures, musicals, and impassioned romances such as ''[[Wuthering Heights (1939 film) | Wuthering Heights]]'' (1939). But ultimately, he was best known for two specific types of film: crime thrillers and [[screwball comedies]].


:"Ye gods, what are my feelings. Her lips are softer than the rose's leaf, her mouth is sweet as honey, and her kiss inflicts on me more pain than a bee's sting. I have often kissed my kids, I have often kissed my lambs, but never have I known aught like this. My pulse is beating fast, my heart throbs, it is as if I were about to suffocate, yet, nevertheless, I want to have another kiss. Strange, never-suspected pain! Has Chloe, I wonder, drunk some poisonous draught ere she kissed me? How conies it that she herself has not died of it?
Although he was more interested in writing plays and novels, he wrote screenplays during part of the year to "replenish his bank account." He lived mostly in New York, and traveled to Hollywood to work on films. Despite his success, he scorned most of the films on which he worked, and disliked the effect that movies were having on the theater, American cultural standards, and on his own creativity.


==Early years==
===Kiss of affection===
A kiss can also be used to express feelings without an erotic element but can be nonetheless "far deeper and more lasting," writes Nyrop. He adds that such kisses can be expressive of love "in the widest and most comprehensive meaning of the word, bringing a message of loyal affection, gratitude, compassion, sympathy, intense joy, and profound sorrow."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|79}}
Hecht was born in New York City, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. "He was considered a child prodigy at age 10, seemingly on his way to a career as a concert violinist, but two years later was performing as a circus acrobat." <ref name=Siegel>Siegel, Scott, and Siegel, Barbara. ''The Encyclopedia of Hollywood'', 2nd ed. (2004) Checkmark Books</ref>. The family moved to Racine, Wisconsin, and when Hecht was in his early teens he would spend the summers with an uncle in Chicago. At sixteen, he ran away to live permanently in Chicago, and found work as a reporter, first for the ''Chicago Journal'', and later with the ''Chicago Daily News''. <ref name=Clark>Clark, Randall. ''Dictionary of Literary Biography - American Screenwriters'' (1984) Gale Research </ref>


The most common example is the "intense feeling which knits parents to their offspring," writes Nyrop, but adds that kisses of affection are not only common between parents and children, but also between other members of the same family, which can include those outside the immediate family circle, "everywhere where deep affection unites people."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|82}} The tradition is written of in the Bible, as when [[Orpah]] kissed her mother-in-law and when [[Moses]] went to meet his father-in-law, " he did obeisance and kissed him ; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent;" and when [[Jacob]] had wrestled with the Lord he met [[Esau]], ran towards him, fell on his neck and kissed him. The family kiss was traditional with the [[Romans]] and kisses of affection are often mentioned by the early [[Greeks]], as when [[Odysseus]], on reaching his home, meets his faithful shepherds.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|82-83}}
The 1969 movie, ''Gaily, Gaily'', directed by [[Norman Jewison]], was based on his life during his early years working as a reporter in Chicago, and was nominated for three Oscars. The story was taken from a portion of his autobiograhy, ''A Child of the Century''.


Affection can be a cause of kissing "in all ages in grave and solemn moments," notes Nyrop, "not only among those who love each other, but also as an expression of profound gratitude. When the [[Apostle Paul]] took leave of the elders of the congregation at [[Ephesus]], " they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him " (Acts xx. 37). Kisses can also be exchanged between total strangers, as when there is a profound sympathy with or the warmest interest in, another person.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|85}}
===Married life===
He married Marie Armstrong in 1915, when he was 21 years of age, and had a daughter, Edwina. He was divorced ten years later, in 1925, and married Rose Caylor that same year. They had a daughter, Jenny.


[[Folk poetry]] has been the source of affectionate kisses where they sometimes played an important part, as when they had the power to cast off spells or to break bonds of witchcraft and sorcery, often restoring a man to his original shape. Nyrop notes the poetical stories of the "redeeming power of the kiss are to be found in the literature of many countries, especially, for example, in the Old French Arthurian romances (Lancelot, Guiglain, Tirant le blanc] in which the princess is changed by evil arts into a dreadful dragon, and can only resume her human shape in the case of a knight being brave enough to kiss her." In the reverse situation, in the tale of "[[Beauty and the Beast]]," a transformed prince then told the girl that he had been bewitched by a wicked fairy, and could not be recreated into a man unless a maid fell in love with him and kissed him, despite his ugliness.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|95-96}}
===Journalist===
From 1918 to 1919 Hecht served as war correspondent in Berlin for the ''Chicago Daily News''. Besides being a war reporter, he was noted for being "a tough crime reporter while also becoming known in Chicago literary circles."<ref name=Siegel/> He published the sensational column ''1001 Afternoons in Chicago'' during his work as reporter. While at the ''Chicago Daily News'', Hecht famously broke the 1921 "Ragged Stranger Murder Case" story, about the murder of [[Carl Wanderer]]'s wife, which led to the trial and execution of war hero Carl Wanderer.


A kiss of affection can also take place after death. In [[Genesis]] it is written that when [[Jacob]] was dead, "Joseph fell upon his father's face and wept upon him and kissed him." And it is told of [[Abu Bekr]], [[Mahomet]]'s first disciple, father-in-law, and successor, that, when the prophet was dead, he went into the latter's tent, uncovered his face, and kissed him. Nyrop writes that "the kiss is the last tender proof of love bestowed on one we have loved, and was believed, in ancient times, to follow mankind to the nether world."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|97}}
In Chicago, he met and befriended [[Maxwell Bodenheim]], an American poet and novelist who was known as the King of [[Greenwich Village]] Bohemians and who became a lifelong friend.


===Playwright===
===Kiss of peace===
Nyrop notes that the kiss was used as an expression of deep, spiritual love in the primitive [[Christian Church]]. Christ said, for instance, "Peace be with you, my peace I give you," and the members of Christ's Church gave each other peace symbolically through a kiss. [[St Paul]] repeatedly speaks of the "holy kiss", and, in his [[Epistle]] to the Romans, writes: " Salute one another with an holy kiss" and his first Epistle to the Thessalonians (v. 26), he says : "Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|101}}
He began writing plays beginning with a series of one-acts in 1914. His first full-length play was ''The Egotist'', and was produced in New York in 1922. While living in Chicago, he met fellow reporter [[Charles MacArthur]] and together they moved to New York to collaborate on their play, ''[[The Front Page]]''. It was widely acclaimed and had a successful run on Broadway of 281 performances, beginning August,1928. In 1931 it was turned into a successful film which was nominated for three Oscars.


The holy kiss was also used in [[secular]] festivities. During the [[Middle Ages]], for example, Nyrop points out that it was the custom to "seal the reconciliation and pacification of enemies by a kiss." Even knights gave each other the kiss of peace before proceeding to the combat, and forgave one another all real or imaginary wrongs. The holy kiss was also found in the ritual of the Church on solemn occasions, such as baptism, marriage, confession, ordination, or obsequies. However, toward the end of the Middle Ages the kiss of peace disappears as the official token of reconciliation.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|109}}
==Screenwriting career==


===Kiss of respect===
"Ben Hecht was ''the'' Hollywood screenwriter...[and] it can be said without too much exaggeration that Hecht personifies Hollywood itself." Movie columnist Pauline Kael wrote that "between them, Hecht and Jules Furthman wrote most of the best American talkies."<ref name=Corliss>Corliss, Richard, ''Talking Pictures'', (1974) Overlook Press</ref>{{rp|5}} His movie career can be defined by about twenty credited screenplays he wrote for Hawks, Hitchcock, Hathaway, Lubitsch, Wellman, Sternberg, and himself. He wrote many of those with his two regular collaborators, [[Charles MacArthur]] and [[Charles Lederer]].
The kiss of resepect is of ancient origin, notes Nyrop. He writes that "from the remotest times we find it applied to all that is holy, noble, and worshipful—to the gods, their statues, temples, and altars, as well as to kings and emperors ; out of reverence, people even kissed the ground, and both sun and moon were greeted with kisses."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|114}}


He notes some examples, as "when the prophet [[Hosea]] laments over the idolatry of the children of [[Israel]], he says that they make molten images of calves and kiss them." In classical times similar homage was often paid to the gods, and people were known to kiss the hands, knees, feet, and the mouths, of their idols. [[Cicero]] writes that the lips and beard of the famous statue of [[Hercules]] at [[Agrigentum]] were worn away by the kisses of devotees.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|115}}
While living in New York in 1926, he received a telegram from screenwriter friend [[Herman J. Mankiewicz]], who had recently moved to [[Los Angeles]]. "Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots", it read. "Don't let this get around." As a writer in need of money, he traveled to Hollywood as Mankiewicz suggested. <ref name=Siegel/> Later, however, "to their own minds, Herman Mankiewicz and Ben Hecht both died morose and frustrated. Neither of them had written the great books they believed possible." <ref name=Thomson1>Thomson, David, ''The Whole Equation - A History of Hollywood'', (2005) Alfred A. Knopf</ref>{{rp|170}}


People kissed the Cross with the image of the Crucified, and such kissing of the Cross is always considered a holy act. In many countries it is required, on taking an oath, as the highest assertion that the witness would be speaking the truth. Nyrop notes that "as a last act of charity, the image of the Redeemer is handed to the dying or death-condemned to be kissed." Kissing the Cross brings blessing and happiness; people kiss the image of [[Our Lady]] and the pictures and statues of saints—not only their pictures, "but even their relics are kissed," notes Nyrop. "They make both soul and body whole." There are legends innumerable of sick people regaining their health by kissing relics, he points out.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|121}}
He arrived in Los Angeles and began his career at the very beginning of the sound era by writing the story for [[Josef von Sternberg]]'s gangster movie, [[Underworld (1927 film)|''Underworld'']], in 1927. For that first screenplay and story he won an [Academy Award]] for [[Best Original Screenplay]] in Hollywood's first Academy award ceremony.<ref name=Siegel/> Soon afterward, he became the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood, earning from $50,000 to $125,000 per script. He spent half the year in New York, working on plays and novels, and the other half in Hollywood, writing screenplays.<ref name=Clark/> Later in his career, "he was a writer who liked to think that his genius had been stifled by Hollywood and by its dreadful habit of giving him so much money."<ref name=Thomson1/>{{rp|267}}


The kiss of respect has also represented a mark of humility and reverence. Its use in ancient times was widespread, and Nyrop gives examples: "people threw themselves down on the ground before their rulers, kissed their footprints, literally 'licked the dust,' as it is termed."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|124}} "Nearly everywhere, wheresoever an inferior meets a superior, we observe the kiss of respect. The Roman slaves kissed the hands of their masters; pupils and soldiers those of their teachers and captains respectively."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|124}} People also kissed the earth for joy on returning to their native land after a lengthened absence, as when [[Agamemnon]] returned from the [[Trojan War]] Nyrop points out, however, that in modern times the ceremonious kiss of respect "has gone clean out of fashion in the most civilised countries," and it is only retained in the Church, and that in many cases "the practice would be offensive or ridiculous."<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|130}}


===Kiss of friendship===


The kiss is also commonly used in American and European culture as a salutation between friends or acquaintances. The friendly kiss until recent times usually occured only between ladies, but today it is also common between men and women, especially if there is a great difference in age. According to Nyrop, up until the 20th century, "it seldom or never takes place between men, with the exception, however, of royal personages," although he notes that in former times the "friendly kiss was very common with us between man and man as well as between persons of opposite sexes." In guilds, for example, it was customary for the members to greet each other "with hearty handshakes and smacking kisses," and, on the conclusion of a meal, people thanked and kissed both their hosts and hostesses.<ref name=Nyrop/>{{rp|142}}
;Styles of writing
"The talkie era put writers like Hecht at a premium because they could write dialogue in the quirky, idiosyncratic style of the common man. Hecht, in particular, was wonderful with slang, and he peppered his films with the argot of the streets. He also had a lively sense of humor and an uncanny ability to ground even the most outrageious stories sucessfully with credible, fast-paced plots." <ref name=Siegel/>


{{reflist}}
He was best known for two specific and contrasting types of film: crime thrillers and screwball comedies.<ref name=Siegel/> Among crime thrillers, Hecht was responsible for such films as ''[[The Unholy Night]]'' (1929), the classic ''[[Scarface (1932 film)|Scarface]]'' (1932), and Hitchcock's ''[[Notorious (1946 film)| Notorious]]''. Among his comedies, there were ''[[The Front Page (1931 film)|The Front Page]]'', with led to many remakes, [[Noel Coward]]'s ''[[Design for Living]]'' (1933), ''[[Twentieth Century (film)| Twentieth Century]]'', ''[[Nothing Sacred (film)|Nothing Sacred]]'', and the [[Marx Brothers]]' ''[[Monkey Business (1931 film)| Monkey Business]]'' (1952).

"But it is his crisp, frenetic, sensational prose and dialogue style that elevates his work above that of the dozens of other reporters who streamed west to cover and exploit Hollywood's biggest 'story': the talkie revolution.<ref name=Corliss/>{rp|6}}

;Blacklisted in England
From 1948 to 1951, Hecht was blacklisted in England because of his criticism of British policies in Palestine. His films were banned in England, and of the ones shown, his name was removed from the credits.<ref name=Clark/>

==Notable screenplays==

;''Underworld'' (1927)
[[Underworld (1927 film)|''Underworld'']], was the story of a petty hoodlum with political pull; it was based on a real Chicago gangster Hecht knew. "The film began the gangster film genre that became popular in the early 1930s."<ref name=Clark/> And along with ''Scarface'', "were the alpha and omega of Hollywood's first gangster craze." <ref name=Corliss/>{rp|6}} In it, he "manages both to congratulate journalism for its importance and to chastise it for its chicanery, by underlining the newspapers' complicity in promoting the underworld image." <ref name=Corliss/>{{rp|10}}

"Like so many of his films, ''Underworld'' and ''Scarface'' are 'stories' that ace-reporter Hecht loved to cover, as much for the larger-than-life qualities of his headliners as for the enormity of their crimes. Love-hate ... fascination-revulsion ... expose'-glorification ... these are the polarities that make Hecht's best films deliciously ambiguous."<ref name=Corliss/>{{rp|6}} "Hecht's introductin, which is nothing if not moddy and Sandburgian, describes 'A great city in the dead of night - streets lonely, moon-flooded - buildings empty as the cliff-dwellings of a forgotten age." <ref name=Corliss/>{{rp|6}}

Hecht was noted for confronting producers and directors when he wasn't satisfied with the way they used his scripts. For this film, at one point he demanded that its director, [[Josef von Sternberg]] remove his name from the credits since Sternberg unilaterally changed one scene. Afterwards, however, he relented and took credit for the film's story, which went on to win the [[Academy Award]] for [[Best Original Screenplay]] - the first year the awards were presented.<ref name=Clark/>

;''The Front Page'' (1931)
After contributing to the original stories for a number of films, he worked without credit on the first film version of his original 1928 play [[The Front Page (1931 film)|''The Front Page'']].

;''Scarface'' (1932)
After ushering in the beginning of the gangster film with ''Underworld'', his next film became one of the best films of that genre. [[Scarface (1932 film)|''Scarface'']] was directed by [[Howard Hawks]], ("Hecht the wordsmith and Hawks the engineer..."<ref name=Corliss/>{rp|8}}, who became "one of the few directors with whom Hecht enjoyed working." <ref name=Clark/> It starred [[Paul Muni]] playing the role of an [[Al Capone]]-like gangster. "''Scarface's'' all-but-suffocating vitality is a kind of cinematic version of tabloid prose at its best."<ref name=Corliss/>{{rp|10}}

;''Twentieth Century'' (1934)
For his next film, [[Twentieth Century (film)|''Twentieth Century'']], he wrote the screenplay in collaboration with [[Charles MacArthur]] as an adaptation of their original play from 1932. It was directed by Howard Hawks, and starred [[John Barrymore]] and [[Carole Lombard]]. It's a comedy about a Broadway producer who was losing his leading lady to the seductive Hollywood film industry, and will do anything to win her back.

It's "a fast-paced, witty film that contains the rapid-fire dialogue for which Hecht became famous. It is one of the first, and finest, of the [[screwball comedies]] of the 1930s."<ref name=Clark/>

;''Viva Villa!'' (1934)
This was the story about Mexican rebel [[Pancho Villa]], who takes to the hills after killing an overseer in revenge for his father's death. It was directed by Howard Hawks and starred [[Wallace Beery]]. Although the movie took liberties with the facts, it became a great success, and Hecht received an Academy award nomination for his screenplay adaptation.

;''Barbary Coast'' (1935)
[[Barbary Coast (film)|''Barbary Coast'']] was also directed by Howard Hawks and starred [[Miriam Hopkins]] and [[Edward G. Robinson]]. The film takes place in late nineteenth century [[San Franciso]] with Hopkins playing the role of a dance-hall girl up against Robinson, who runs the town.

;''Nothing Sacred'' (1938)
[[Nothing Sacred (film)|''Nothing Sacred'']] became Hecht's first project after he and Charles MacArthur closed their failing film company which they started in 1934. The film was adapted from his play, ''Hazel Flagg'', and starred Carole Lombard as a small-town girl diagnosed with radium poisoning. "A reporter makes her case a cause for his newspaper. The story "allowed Hecht to work with one of his favorite themes, hypocrisy (especialy among journalists); he took the themes of lying, decadence, and immorality and made them into a sophisticated screwball comedy."<ref name=Clark/>

;''Gunga Din'' (1939)
[[Gunga Din (film)|''Gunga Din'']] was cowritten with Charles MacArthur and became "one of Hollywood's greatest action-adventure films." <ref name=Clark/> The screenplay was based on the poem by [[Rudyard Kipling], directed by [[George Stevens]] and starred [[Cary Grant]] and [[Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.]]. In 1999 the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the [[United States Library of Congress]].

;''Wuthering Heights'' (1939)
After working without credit on [[Gone with the Wind (film)|''Gone with the Wind'']] in 1939, he cowrote, with Charles MacArthur, an adaptation of [[Emily Bronte]]'s novel,[[Wuthering Heights (film)|''Wuthering Heights'']]. Although the screenplay was actually cut off at the story's half-way point, being considered too long, it was nominated for an Academy award.<ref name=Clark/>

;''Angels Over Broadway'' (1940)
''[[Angels Over Broadway]]'' was the only movie he directed, produced, and wrote originally for film. It was considered "one of his most personal works."<ref name=Corliss/>{{rp|21}} It starred [[Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.]] and [[Rita Hayworth]] and was nominated for an Academy award. "The dialogue as well as the script's descriptive passages are chock full of brittle Hechtian similes that sparkle on the page but turn leaden when delivered. Hecht was an endlessly articulate raconteur. In his novels and memoirs, articulation dominates..." <ref name=Corliss/>{{rp|19}}

In the script, he experimented with "reflections of life - as if a ghost were drifiting in the rain." These "reflections" of sidewalks, bridges, glass, and neon make the film a visual prototype of the forties ''[[film noir]]''.<ref name=Corliss/>{{rp|21}}

;Alfred Hitchcock's ''Spellbound'' (1945) and ''Notorious'' (1946)
For [[Alfred Hitchcock]] he wrote a number of his best psycho-dramas and received his final Academy award nomination for [[Notorious (film)|''Notorious'']]. He also worked without credit on Hitchcock's ''Paradine Case'' (1947).

;''Monkey Business'' (1952)
In 1947 he teamed up with [[Charles Lederer]] and cowrote three films: ''Her Husband's Affairs'', ''Kiss of Death'', and ''Ride the Pink Horse''. In 1950 he cowrote [[The Thing (film)|''The Thing'']] without credit. They again teamed up to write the 1952 screwball comedy [[Monkey Business (film)|''Monkey Business'']], which became Hecht's last true success as a screenwriter. <ref name=Clark/>

===Uncredited films===
Among the more well-know films he helped write without credit were ''Gone with the Wind'', ''The Shop Around the Corner'', ''Foreign Correspondent'', ''His Girl Friday'', (the second film version of his play ''The Front Page''), ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' (1962), ''Casino Royale'' (1967), ''The Greatest Show on Earth'', and ''A Farewell to Arms'' (1957).

"''His Girl Friday'' remains not just the fastest-talking romantic comedy ever made, but a very tricky inquiry into love's need for a chase (or a dream) and the sharpest pointer to uncertain gender roles."<ref name=Thomson1>{{rp|221}}

==Personal life==

===Jewish activism===

{{"Blood for goods" proposal}}
Hecht's activism began when he met Peter Bergson (né [[Hillel Kook]]) - an [[ETZEL]] emissary to America. Hecht wrote in his book ''[[Perfidy (book)|Perfidy]]'' that he used to be a scriptwriter until his meeting with Bergson, when he accidentally bumped into history - i.e. the burning need to do anything possible to save the doomed Jews of Europe (paraphrase from ''Perfidy''). After meeting Kook, Hecht dedicated himself to working with Kook's rescue group and after the war ended he continued to work with Kook on establishment of the State of [[Israel]].

Kook's rescue group purchased ad space in major US newspapers and Hecht wrote most of the ads, which were designed to call for immediate rescue action. In ''Perfidy'' and other writings, Hecht wrote that he was saddened by the negative reaction of mainstream American Jewish leaders toward rescue. He perceived them as pompous and more involved with petty aspects of Jewish politics and post-war Zionist issues than investing their talents, time and connections into rescue of their doomed brethren across the Atlantic.

Together with [[Kurt Weill]] and other top-level Broadway and Hollywood contacts, Hecht produced the pageant ''[[We Shall Never Die]]'', which was shown in [[Madison Square Garden]] and in numerous cities across America. In Washington, [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] and many government leaders saw it. The pageant was strongly opposed by major Jewish leaders such as [[Stephen Wise]], and they tried to ensure that it was not shown.<ref>{{cite book | last = Wyman | first = David | authorlink = David Wyman | title = The Abandonment Of The Jews | publisher = Pantheon | date = 1984 | location = New York | isbn = 0394740777}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Medoff | first = Rafael | authorlink = Rafael Medoff | title = A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust | publisher = Mew Press | date = 2002 | location = New York | isbn = 156584761X}}</ref> Despite considerable obstruction the Bergson Group's activism bore fruit, although much less and much later than Kook, Hecht and their colleagues expected<ref>Larry Jarvik circa mid 1970-s video interview with Hillel Kook: ''Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die''</ref>. The Bergson Group had generated considerable support in Washington, and after long delay their activism resulted in President Roosevelt's establishment of the [[War Refugee Board]] (WRB), which ultimately supported the Wallenberg mission to Budapest. According to history books by [[David Wyman]] and [[Rafael Medoff]], over 200,000 people were rescued as a result of the Bergson Group - probably mostly in Hungary.

After the war ended Hecht and Weill produced another major pageant, this time about establishment of the State of Israel, called ''[[A Flag is Born]]''. It raised more than $400,000<ref>{{cite web | title = A Flag Is Born | publisher = American Jewish Historical Society | date = 2005 | url = http://www.ajhs.org/publications/chapters/chapter.cfm?documentID=268 | accessdate = 2008-01-11}}</ref> for the [[Revisionist Zionism|revisionist]]-supporting [[American League For a Free Palestine]], and was bitterly opposed by [[Haganah]] supporters.<ref>{{Citation | title = Traitors, Inc. | newspaper = Time | year = 1947 | date = [[July 14]], [[1947]] | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,779137,00.html}}</ref>

Hecht became a great supporter of [[Zeev Jabotinsky]] and the [[Revisionist Zionism]] movement led by [[Menachem Begin]]. He opposed the [[social-democratic]] policies of Israel's first two prime ministers [[David Ben-Gurion]] and [[Moshe Sharett]], and of the [[Jewish Agency]] for what he regarded as their complicit silence and co-operation with the British during [[World War II]] in not doing more to rescue Jews and open the doors of Palestine to [[Jewish refugees]] from [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[Germany]] and occupied Europe. He spoke out against the lack of interest in saving the [[Jew]]s trapped in Europe during [[the Holocaust]]. He purchased newspaper advertising in New York's newspapers to publicize the fate of [[Hitler]]'s victims. In one such "advertisement" with the [[headline]]: "FOR SALE: 70,000 JEWS AT $50 APIECE GUARANTEED HUMAN BEINGS" explaining that three and a half million dollars would rescue the then-trapped [[Romania]]n Jews (quoted in his work ''Perfidy'', pp. 191-192). However, [[Stephen Wise]] made a public statement in the name of the [[American Jewish Congress]] denying the "confirmation" of the offer from the Romanian government.

It was during this time that Hecht wrote his book ''A Guide For The Bedeviled'', which explains the thoughts and forces that drove him to this radical change of life and work.

He subsequently wrote ''Perfidy'', dramatizing the failure to rescue [[Hungary|Hungarian]] Jews during the Holocaust, and the roles of the Zionist leader [[Rudolf Kastner]] and others in leadership positions in the Hungarian Jewish community. This issue was the subject of a famous [[libel]] trial, in which the Israeli government sued an amateur pamphleteer who accused Kastner, at the time a spokesman of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, of having collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust. Although the court initially held that these accusations were not libelous, on appeal the verdict was reversed by a split 3-2 decision in the Supreme Court. By then, however, Kastner had been assassinated.

==Legacy==

His writing has influenced many of Hollywood's most loved movies, including, [[Rouben Mamoulian]]'s [[Queen Christina (film)|''Queen Christina'']] (1933), [[John Ford]]'s [[The Hurricane (film)|''The Hurricane'']] (1937), [[David O. Selznick]]'s [[Gone with the Wind (film)|''Gone with the Wind'']] (1939), and several [[Alfred Hitchcock|Hitchcock]] films, including [[Lifeboat (film)|''Lifeboat'']] (1944), ''[[The Paradine Case]]'' (1948), and [[Rope (film)|''Rope'']] (1948). He received no screen credits for his work on those films.<ref name=Siegel/>

==Quotes==
===Screenplays===
*"It's gonna be just like war!" an editor exults. "That's it! War! You put that in the lead. 'WAR - GANG WAR!'" ''Underworld'' (1927)

*"The actual facts are so simple. I love you. You love me. You love Otto. I love Otto. Otto loves you. Otto loves me. There now! Start to unravel from there." ''Design for Living (1933)
*"They're a symbol of the whole town, pretending to fight, love, weep and laugh all the time - and they're phonies, all of them. And I head the list...their phony hearts were dripping with the milk of human kindness." ''Nothing Sacred'' (1937)
*"Three years ago, the white hope of the theatre. Today, a mug. That's New York for you. Puts you on a Christmas tree, and then - the alley." ''Angels Over Broadway'' (1940)
*"Gibbons is a man full of pain and violence. On this night, there is a Witch's Sabbath in his heart. Storms are blowing his world to bits and great troubles are pounding him on a reef." ''Angels Over Broadway'' (1940)
*"You're such a nice boy, what do you want to go off and get killed in the War for?" ''Miracle in the Rain'' (1956)

===Books===

* "In Hollywood, a starlet is the name for any woman under thirty who is not actively employed in a brothel."
* "The honors Hollywood has for the writer are as dubious as tissue-paper cuff links."
* "People's sex habits are as well known in Hollywood as their political opinions, and much less criticized."
* When asked by his new wife's discomfited parents "Why didn't you tell us you were a Jew?", Hecht responded "I was afraid you would think I was bragging."
* "Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock."
* "There is nothing as dull as an intellectual ally after a certain age." (''A Guide for the Bedevilled'')
* "The only practical way yet discovered by the world for curing its ills is to forget about them." (''Perfidy'')
*"Of the things men give each other the greatest is loyalty."
*"Movies are one of the bad habits that have corrupted our century. They have slipped into the American mind more misinformation in one evening than the Dark Ages could muster in a decade."
*A movie is never any better than the stupidest man connected with it."
*"The movies are an eruption of trash that has lamed the American mind and retarded Americans from becoming cultured people."
*"Writing a good movie brings a writer about as much fame as steering a bicycle."

'''How My Egoism Died'''
*"Mov
{{cquote|A simple fact entered my head one day and put an end to my revolt against the Deity. It occurred to me that God was not engaged in corrupting the mind of man but in creating it. This may sound like no fact at all, or like the most childish of quibbles. But whatever it is, it brought me a sigh of relief, a slightly bitter sigh. I was relieved because instead of beholding a man as a finished and obviously worthless product, unable to bring sanity into human affairs, I looked on him (in my conversion) as a creature in the making. And lo, I was aware that like my stooped and furry brothers, the apes, I am God's incomplete child. My groping brain, no less than my little toe, is a mechanism in His evolution-busy hands.}}

'''Remember us''' from: ''The Reader's Digest, February 1943'':

{{cquote|Outside the borders of Russia, there will not be enough Jews left in Europe to profit by representation were it given to them. They will have been reduced from a minority to a phantom. There will be no representatives of the 3,000,000 Jews who once lived in Poland, or of the 900.000 who once lived in Rumania, or of the 900,000 who once lived in Germany, or of the 750,000 who once lived in Czechoslovakia, or of the 400,000 who once lived in France, Holland and Belgium. Of these 6,000,000 Jews almost a third have already been massacred by the Germans, Rumanians and Hungarians, and the most conservative of the scorekeepers estimate that before the war ends at least another third will have been done to death. .}}

==Academy Award nominations==
* [[20th Academy Awards]] Nominated ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]''
* [[14th Academy Awards]] Nominated ''[[Angels Over Broadway]]''
* [[13th Academy Awards]] Nominated ''[[Wuthering Heights (1939 film)|Wuthering Heights]]''
* [[9th Academy Awards]] Won ''[[The Scoundrel]]''
* [[8th Academy Awards]] Nominated ''[[Viva Villa!]]''
* [[1st Academy Awards]] - Won ''[[Underworld (1927 film)|Underworld]]''

==Writing filmography==
{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
* ''[[Kiss of Death (1995 film)|Kiss of Death]]''
* ''[[Casino Royale (1967 film)|Casino Royale]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Circus World (film)|Circus World]]''
* ''[[7 Faces of Dr. Lao]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Cleopatra (1963 film)|Cleopatra]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Billy Rose's Jumbo (film)|Billy Rose's Jumbo]]''
* ''[[Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 film)|Mutiny on the Bounty]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[A Walk on the Wild Side (story)|A Walk on the Wild Side]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[North to Alaska]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[John Paul Jones (film)|John Paul Jones]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[The Gun Runners]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Queen of Outer Space]]''
* ''[[Legend of the Lost]]''
* ''[[A Farewell to Arms (1957 film)|A Farewell to Arms]]''
* ''[[Miracle in the Rain]]''
* ''[[The Iron Petticoat]]''
* ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956 film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Trapeze (disambiguation)|Trapeze]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[The Indian Fighter]]''
* ''[[The Man with the Golden Arm]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Guys and Dolls (film)|Guys and Dolls]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Living It Up]]''
* ''[[Ulysses (1955 film)|Ulisse]]''
* ''[[Light's Diamond Jubilee]]'' (television)
* ''[[Terminal Station (1953 film)|Terminal Station]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Angel Face]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Hans Christian Andersen (film)|Hans Christian Andersen]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Monkey Business (1952 film)|Monkey Business]]''
* ''[[Actors and Sin]]'' (also directed and produced)
* ''[[The Wild Heart (1952 film)|The Wild Heart]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[The Thing from Another World]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[The Secret of Convict Lake]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Strangers on a Train (film)|Strangers on a Train]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[September Affair]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Where the Sidewalk Ends]]''
* ''[[Edge of Doom]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Perfect Strangers (1950 film)|Perfect Strangers]]''
* ''[[Love Happy]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[The Inspector General (film)|The Inspector General]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Whirlpool (1949 film)|Whirlpool]]''
* ''[[Roseanna McCoy]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Big Jack]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Portrait of Jennie]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Cry of the City]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Rope (film)|Rope]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[The Miracle of the Bells]]''
* ''[[Dishonored Lady]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Her Husband's Affairs]]''
* ''[[The Paradine Case]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Ride the Pink Horse]]''
* ''[[Kiss of Death (1947 film)|Kiss of Death]]''
* ''[[Duel in the Sun (film)|Duel in the Sun]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]''
* ''[[Specter of the Rose]]'' (also directed and produced)
* ''[[Gilda]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Cornered (film)|Cornered]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Spellbound (1945 film)|Spellbound]]''
* ''[[Watchtower Over Tomorrow]]''
* ''[[Lifeboat (film)|Lifeboat]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[The Outlaw]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[China Girl(film)|China Girl]]''
* ''[[Journey Into Fear]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[The Black Swan (film)|The Black Swan]]''
{{col-break}}
* ''[[Ten Gentlemen from West Point]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Roxie Hart (film)|Roxie Hart]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Lydia (film)|Lydia]]''
* ''[[The Mad Doctor (1941 film)|The Mad Doctor]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Comrade X]]''
* ''[[Second Chorus]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Angels Over Broadway]]'' (also directed and produced)
* ''[[Foreign Correspondent (film)|Foreign Correspondent]]'' (final scene-uncredited)
* ''[[The Shop Around the Corner]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[His Girl Friday]]''
* ''[[I Take This Woman]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[At the Circus]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Lady of the Tropics]]''
* ''[[It's a Wonderful World]]''
* ''[[Wuthering Heights (1939 film)|Wuthering Heights]]''
* ''[[Let Freedom Ring (film)|Let Freedom Ring]]''
* ''[[Stagecoach (film)|Stagecoach]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Gunga Din (film)|Gunga Din]]''
* ''[[Angels with Dirty Faces]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[The Goldwyn Follies]]''
* ''[[Nothing Sacred (film)|Nothing Sacred]]''
* ''[[The Hurricane (1937 film)|The Hurricane]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[The Prisoner of Zenda (1937 film)|The Prisoner of Zenda]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Woman Chases Man]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[King of Gamblers]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[A Star Is Born (1937 film)|A Star Is Born]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Soak the Rich]]'' (also directed)
* ''[[The Scoundrel]]'' (also directed)
* ''[[Spring Tonic]]''
* ''[[Barbary Coast (film)|Barbary Coast]]''
* ''[[Once in a Blue Moon (film)|Once in a Blue Moon]]'' (also directed)
* ''[[The Florentine Dagger]]''
* ''[[The President Vanishes]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Crime without Passion]]'' (also directed)
* ''[[Shoot the Works]]''
* ''[[Twentieth Century (film)|Twentieth Century]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Upperworld]]''
* ''[[Viva Villa!]]''
* ''[[Riptide (film)|Riptide]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Queen Christina (film)|Queen Christina]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Design for Living]]''
* ''[[Turn Back the Clock (film)|Turn Back the Clock]]''
* ''[[Topaze (film)|Topaze]]''
* ''[[Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (film)|Hallelujah, I'm a Bum]]''
* ''[[Back Street]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Rasputin and the Empress]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Million Dollar Legs]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Scarface (1932 film)|Scarface]]''
* ''[[The Beast of the City]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[The Unholy Garden]]''
* ''[[The Sin of Madelon Claudet]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Monkey Business (1931 film)| Monkey Business]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Homicide Squad]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Quick Millions]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Le Spectre vert]]''
* ''[[Roadhouse Nights]]''
* ''[[Street of Chance (1930 film)|Street of Chance]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[The Unholy Night]]''
* ''[[The Great Gabbo]]''
* ''[[The Big Noise (1928 film)|The Big Noise]]''
* ''[[American Beauty (1927 film)|American Beauty]]'' (uncredited)
* ''[[Underworld (1927 film)|Underworld]]''
* ''[[The New Klondike]]'' (uncredited)
{{col-end}}

==Books (partial list)==
* ''1001 Afternoons in Chicago'', [[McGee/Covici]], (1922)
* ''Fantazius Mallare, a Mysterious Oath'', 174 pp., [[Pascal Covici]] (1922)
* ''The Florentine Dagger: A Novel for Amateur Detectives'' w/ illustrations by Wallace Smith, 256 pp. Boni & Liveright (1923)
* ''Kingdom of Evil'', 211pp., [[Pascal Covici]] (1924)
* ''Broken Necks { Containing More 1001 Afternoons }'', 344pp., [[Pascal Covici]] (1926)
* ''Count Bruga'', 319 pp., Boni & Liveright (1926)
* ''The Book of Miracles'', 465 pp., Viking Press (1939)
* ''1001 Afternoons in Chicago'', 370 pp., Viking Press (1941) ASIN B0007E7X9K
* ''A Guide for the Bedevilled'', 276 pages, Charles Scribner's Sons (1944), 216 pp. Milah Press Incorporated ([[September 1]], [[1999]]) ISBN 096468862X
* ''The Collected Stories of Ben Hecht'', 524 pp., Crown (1945)
* ''Perfidy'' (with critical supplements), 281 pp. (plus 29 pp.), Julian Messner (1962)
** ''Perfidy'' 288 pp. Milah Press (1961), Inc. ([[April 1]], [[1997]]) ISBN 0964688638
* ''Concerning a Woman of Sin'', 222 pp., Mayflower (1964)
* ''Gaily, Gaily'', Signet (1963) ([[November 1]], [[1969]]) ISBN
* ''A Child of the Century'' 672 pp. Plume (1954) ([[May 30]], [[1985]]) ISBN
* ''The Front Page'', Samuel French Inc Plays ([[January 1]], [[1998]]) ISBN

* ''The Champion From Far Away'' (1931)
* ''Actor's Blood'' (1936)
* ''A Treasury Of Ben Hecht: Collected Stories And Other Writings'' (1959, anthology)
* ''Erik Dorn''
* ''A Jew in Love''
* ''I Hate Actors!''
* ''1001 Afternoons in New York''
* ''The Sensualists''
* ''Winkelberg''
* ''Miracle in the Rain''
* ''Letters From Bohemia''
* ''Gargoyles''
* ''The Egoist''

==See also==
*[[Rudolf Vrba]]
*[[Rudolf Kastner]]
*[[Stanislav Szukalski]]
*[[Irgun]]
*[[History of the Jews in Hungary]]
*[[Fortean Society]]

==Footnotes==
<references/>

==References==
*Bleiler, Everett, ''The Checklist of Fantastic Literature'' (1948) Shasta Publishers
*Bluestone, George, ''From Novels Into Film'' (1968) Berkeley: University of California Press
*Fetherling, Doug, ''The Five Lives of Ben Hecht'' (1977) Lester & Orpen
*Halliwell, Leslie, ''Who's Who in the Movies'' (2006) Harper Collins
*Thomson, David, ''A Biographical Dictionary of Film'' (1995) Alfred A. Knopf
*Wollen, Peter, ''Signs and Meaning in the Cinema'' (1969) Indiana University Press

==External links==
* {{imdb name|id=0372942|name=Ben Hecht}}
* [http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=4460 Ben Hecht] at the [[Internet Broadway Database]]
* [http://www.biblion.com/litweb/biogs/hecht_ben.html Ben Hecht: Biography with credits for many other works]
* [http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/kastner_judea_magazine.htm Summary: Perfidy and the Kastner Trial]
* [http://www.geocities.com/jacobsworld/jbooks/perfidy.html "Perfidy" Written by Ben Hecht: Reviewed by Michael Jacobs]
* [http://www.compassrose.org/uptown/nirvana.html "Nirvana" by Ben Hecht]
*United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007040 Ben Hecht]
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=R-sOAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=hecht&lr=&num=100&as_brr=1&ei=DFRnR7viIYOUtgOb15SiAw Fantazius Mallare, the Complete Volume online]
* {{gutenberg author| id=Ben+Hecht | name=Ben Hecht}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hecht, Ben}}
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1964 deaths]]
[[Category:American novelists]]
[[Category:American screenwriters]]
[[Category:American short story writers]]
[[Category:Blood for goods]]
[[Category:Jewish American writers]]
[[Category:People from Chicago, Illinois]]
[[Category:People from Racine, Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Wisconsin writers]]
[[Category:American dramatists and playwrights]]

[[de:Ben Hecht]]
[[fr:Ben Hecht]]
[[he:בן הכט]]
[[zh:本·赫克特]]

Latest revision as of 04:07, 29 October 2010

Types of Kisses

[edit]

Christopher Nyrop, in his book The Kiss and its History, describes five main types of kisses: kisses of love, affection, peace, respect and friendship. He admitted, however, that the categories were somewhat contrived and overlapping, and other cultures often had more kinds, including the French, with twenty and the Germans with thirty.[1]

Kiss of love

[edit]

Nyrop discusses the kiss and its importance as the direct expression of love and erotic emotions. He describes the kiss of love as an "exultant message of the longing of love, love eternally young, the burning prayer of hot desire, which is born on the lovers' lips, and 'rises,' as Charles Fuster has said, 'up to the blue sky from the green plains,' like a tender, trembling thank-offering." He adds, that the love kiss, "rich in promise, bestows an intoxicating feeling of infinite happiness, courage, and youth, and therefore surpasses all other earthly joys in sublimity."[1]: 30  He also compares it to one's achievements in life, "Thus even the highest work of art, yea, the loftiest reputation, is nothing in comparison with the passionate kiss of a woman one loves."[1]: 31 

The power of a kiss is not minimized when he writes that "we all yearn for kisses and we all seek them; it is idle to struggle against this passion. No one can evade the omnipotence of the kiss. . . ." Kissing, he implies, can lead one to maturity: "It is through kisses that a knowledge of life and happiness first comes to us. Runeberg says that the angels rejoice over the first kiss exchanged by lovers," and can keep one feeling young: "It carries life with it; it even bestows the gift of eternal youth." The importance of the lover's kiss can also be significant, he notes: "In the case of lovers a kiss is everything; that is the reason why a man stakes his all for a kiss," and "man craves for it as his noblest reward."[1]: 37 

As a result, kissing as an expression of love is contained in much of literature, old and new. Nyrop gives a vivid example in the classic love story of Daphnis and Chloe. As a reward "Chloe has bestowed a kiss on Daphnis—an innocent young-maid's kiss, but it has on him the effect of an electrical shock":[1]: 47 

"Ye gods, what are my feelings. Her lips are softer than the rose's leaf, her mouth is sweet as honey, and her kiss inflicts on me more pain than a bee's sting. I have often kissed my kids, I have often kissed my lambs, but never have I known aught like this. My pulse is beating fast, my heart throbs, it is as if I were about to suffocate, yet, nevertheless, I want to have another kiss. Strange, never-suspected pain! Has Chloe, I wonder, drunk some poisonous draught ere she kissed me? How conies it that she herself has not died of it?

Kiss of affection

[edit]

A kiss can also be used to express feelings without an erotic element but can be nonetheless "far deeper and more lasting," writes Nyrop. He adds that such kisses can be expressive of love "in the widest and most comprehensive meaning of the word, bringing a message of loyal affection, gratitude, compassion, sympathy, intense joy, and profound sorrow."[1]: 79 

The most common example is the "intense feeling which knits parents to their offspring," writes Nyrop, but adds that kisses of affection are not only common between parents and children, but also between other members of the same family, which can include those outside the immediate family circle, "everywhere where deep affection unites people."[1]: 82  The tradition is written of in the Bible, as when Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and when Moses went to meet his father-in-law, " he did obeisance and kissed him ; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent;" and when Jacob had wrestled with the Lord he met Esau, ran towards him, fell on his neck and kissed him. The family kiss was traditional with the Romans and kisses of affection are often mentioned by the early Greeks, as when Odysseus, on reaching his home, meets his faithful shepherds.[1]: 82–83 

Affection can be a cause of kissing "in all ages in grave and solemn moments," notes Nyrop, "not only among those who love each other, but also as an expression of profound gratitude. When the Apostle Paul took leave of the elders of the congregation at Ephesus, " they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him " (Acts xx. 37). Kisses can also be exchanged between total strangers, as when there is a profound sympathy with or the warmest interest in, another person.[1]: 85 

Folk poetry has been the source of affectionate kisses where they sometimes played an important part, as when they had the power to cast off spells or to break bonds of witchcraft and sorcery, often restoring a man to his original shape. Nyrop notes the poetical stories of the "redeeming power of the kiss are to be found in the literature of many countries, especially, for example, in the Old French Arthurian romances (Lancelot, Guiglain, Tirant le blanc] in which the princess is changed by evil arts into a dreadful dragon, and can only resume her human shape in the case of a knight being brave enough to kiss her." In the reverse situation, in the tale of "Beauty and the Beast," a transformed prince then told the girl that he had been bewitched by a wicked fairy, and could not be recreated into a man unless a maid fell in love with him and kissed him, despite his ugliness.[1]: 95–96 

A kiss of affection can also take place after death. In Genesis it is written that when Jacob was dead, "Joseph fell upon his father's face and wept upon him and kissed him." And it is told of Abu Bekr, Mahomet's first disciple, father-in-law, and successor, that, when the prophet was dead, he went into the latter's tent, uncovered his face, and kissed him. Nyrop writes that "the kiss is the last tender proof of love bestowed on one we have loved, and was believed, in ancient times, to follow mankind to the nether world."[1]: 97 

Kiss of peace

[edit]

Nyrop notes that the kiss was used as an expression of deep, spiritual love in the primitive Christian Church. Christ said, for instance, "Peace be with you, my peace I give you," and the members of Christ's Church gave each other peace symbolically through a kiss. St Paul repeatedly speaks of the "holy kiss", and, in his Epistle to the Romans, writes: " Salute one another with an holy kiss" and his first Epistle to the Thessalonians (v. 26), he says : "Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss."[1]: 101 

The holy kiss was also used in secular festivities. During the Middle Ages, for example, Nyrop points out that it was the custom to "seal the reconciliation and pacification of enemies by a kiss." Even knights gave each other the kiss of peace before proceeding to the combat, and forgave one another all real or imaginary wrongs. The holy kiss was also found in the ritual of the Church on solemn occasions, such as baptism, marriage, confession, ordination, or obsequies. However, toward the end of the Middle Ages the kiss of peace disappears as the official token of reconciliation.[1]: 109 

Kiss of respect

[edit]

The kiss of resepect is of ancient origin, notes Nyrop. He writes that "from the remotest times we find it applied to all that is holy, noble, and worshipful—to the gods, their statues, temples, and altars, as well as to kings and emperors ; out of reverence, people even kissed the ground, and both sun and moon were greeted with kisses."[1]: 114 

He notes some examples, as "when the prophet Hosea laments over the idolatry of the children of Israel, he says that they make molten images of calves and kiss them." In classical times similar homage was often paid to the gods, and people were known to kiss the hands, knees, feet, and the mouths, of their idols. Cicero writes that the lips and beard of the famous statue of Hercules at Agrigentum were worn away by the kisses of devotees.[1]: 115 

People kissed the Cross with the image of the Crucified, and such kissing of the Cross is always considered a holy act. In many countries it is required, on taking an oath, as the highest assertion that the witness would be speaking the truth. Nyrop notes that "as a last act of charity, the image of the Redeemer is handed to the dying or death-condemned to be kissed." Kissing the Cross brings blessing and happiness; people kiss the image of Our Lady and the pictures and statues of saints—not only their pictures, "but even their relics are kissed," notes Nyrop. "They make both soul and body whole." There are legends innumerable of sick people regaining their health by kissing relics, he points out.[1]: 121 

The kiss of respect has also represented a mark of humility and reverence. Its use in ancient times was widespread, and Nyrop gives examples: "people threw themselves down on the ground before their rulers, kissed their footprints, literally 'licked the dust,' as it is termed."[1]: 124  "Nearly everywhere, wheresoever an inferior meets a superior, we observe the kiss of respect. The Roman slaves kissed the hands of their masters; pupils and soldiers those of their teachers and captains respectively."[1]: 124  People also kissed the earth for joy on returning to their native land after a lengthened absence, as when Agamemnon returned from the Trojan War Nyrop points out, however, that in modern times the ceremonious kiss of respect "has gone clean out of fashion in the most civilised countries," and it is only retained in the Church, and that in many cases "the practice would be offensive or ridiculous."[1]: 130 

Kiss of friendship

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The kiss is also commonly used in American and European culture as a salutation between friends or acquaintances. The friendly kiss until recent times usually occured only between ladies, but today it is also common between men and women, especially if there is a great difference in age. According to Nyrop, up until the 20th century, "it seldom or never takes place between men, with the exception, however, of royal personages," although he notes that in former times the "friendly kiss was very common with us between man and man as well as between persons of opposite sexes." In guilds, for example, it was customary for the members to greet each other "with hearty handshakes and smacking kisses," and, on the conclusion of a meal, people thanked and kissed both their hosts and hostesses.[1]: 142 

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Nyrop, Christoper. The Kiss and its History, Sands & Co., London (1901) Read full text
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