It’s the birthday of playwright and actor Sam Shepard (1943-2017), whose plays explored the concept of the American West in new and “hallucinatory” ways in which “the only undeniable truth is that of the mirage” (Ben Brantley, “Sam Shepard, Actor and Pulitzer-Winning Playwright, Is Dead at 73,” NY Times, July 31, 2017). He wrote over [...]
It’s the birthday of William Saroyan (1908-1981), who against crazy odds launched his literary career during the Great Depression with a series of short stories that became a bestselling collection, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and Other Stories (1934), and who always wrote and lived with zest in spite of whatever hardships [...]
I can’t stand it anymore. I know it’s the weekend, but Jean Kerr is too funny to skip simply because her birthday falls on a Saturday this year. So…I’ll just keep it short. Yesterday was the birthday of playwright and humorist Jean Kerr (1922-2003), best known for her collection of essays, Please Don’t Eat the [...]
It’s the birthday of Lillian Hellman (1905-1984), one of the most important American playwrights of the 20th century and a strong political activist. She’s best known for such plays as The Children’s Hour (1934) and Toys in the Attic (1960) and for refusing to capitulate to the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. Hellman [...]