in february 2019 yale university press brought out hoffman's "ben hecht: fighting words, moving pictures" as part of their jewish lives series. "booklist" gave the book a starred review and called it a "precise and lively portrait... each phase in hecht's adventures is electrifying ... hoffman's concentrated biography is smartly entertaining and revelatory." on the publisher's website, film historian and critic noah isenberg describes the book as "thoroughly absorbing, compulsively readable" and says it "gives a critical but sympathetic account of the pugnacious, brilliant ben hecht. a highly gifted storyteller, hoffman shows just how important hecht was in his day, and why he matters now." david denby, writing in "the new yorker", calls the book "superb," and says that hoffman "writes with enormous flair."