3 Review(s)

"John Winters offers a master class in literary sleuthing, untangling the many lives and unearthing the origin story of America's foremost Renaissance man of letters." -Kelly Horan, coauthor of Devotion and Defiance With more than fifty-five plays to his credit-including the 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning Buried Child, an Oscar nod for his portrayal of Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff, and an onscreen persona that's been aptly summed up as "Gary Cooper in denim"-Sam Shepard's impact on American theater and film ranks with the greatest playwrights and actors of the past half-century. Sam Shepard: A Life gets to the heart of Sam Shepard, presenting a compelling and comprehensive account of his life and work. In a new epilogue, added by the author after Shepard's untimely death in July of 2017, John J. Winters offers a glimpse into the enigmatic author's last days, when very few knew he was suffering from ALS. "An excellent biography . . . Mr. Winters is especially good on the backstage of one of Mr. Shepard's most frequently revived works, True West . . . Mr. Winters has an interesting story to tell, and he recounts it ably, bringing us close to a figure who, he admits, avoids intimacy." -The Wall Street Journal "A new, thoroughly researched biography . . . Winters does indeed capture a personality more anxious and self-doubting than previous biographers have grasped." -The Washington Post "Meticulously presents the facts of Shepard's complex life along with incisive descriptions and analyses of diverse productions of Shepard's demanding and innovative plays . . . Winters portrays Shepard as a magnetic, enigmatic, and multitalented artist drawing on a deep well of loneliness and self-questioning, keen attunement to the zeitgeist, and penetrating insight into human nature." -Booklist (starred review)