Conversations with Sam Shepard
A prolific playwright, Sam Shepard (1943-2017) wrote fifty-six produced plays, for which he won many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize. He was also a compelling, Oscar-nominated film actor, appearing in scores of films. Shepard also published eight books of prose and poetry and was a director (directing the premiere productions of ten of his plays as well as two films); a musician (a drummer in three rock bands); a horseman; and a plain-spoken intellectual. The famously private Shepard gave a significant number of interviews over the course of his public life, and the interviewers who respected his boundaries found him to be generous with his time and forthcoming on a wide range of topics.

The selected interviews in Conversations with Sam Shepard begin in 1969 when Shepard, already a multiple Obie winner, was twenty-six and end in 2016, eighteen months before his death from complications of ALS at age seventy-three. In the interim, the voice, the writer, and the man evolved, but there are themes that echo throughout these conversations: the indelibility of family; his respect for stage acting versus what he saw as far easier film acting; and the importance of music to his work. He also speaks candidly of his youth in California, his early days as a playwright in New York City, his professionally formative time in London, his interests and influences, the mythology of the American Dream, his own plays, and more. In Conversations with Sam Shepard, the playwright reveals himself in his own words.
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Conversations with Sam Shepard
A prolific playwright, Sam Shepard (1943-2017) wrote fifty-six produced plays, for which he won many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize. He was also a compelling, Oscar-nominated film actor, appearing in scores of films. Shepard also published eight books of prose and poetry and was a director (directing the premiere productions of ten of his plays as well as two films); a musician (a drummer in three rock bands); a horseman; and a plain-spoken intellectual. The famously private Shepard gave a significant number of interviews over the course of his public life, and the interviewers who respected his boundaries found him to be generous with his time and forthcoming on a wide range of topics.

The selected interviews in Conversations with Sam Shepard begin in 1969 when Shepard, already a multiple Obie winner, was twenty-six and end in 2016, eighteen months before his death from complications of ALS at age seventy-three. In the interim, the voice, the writer, and the man evolved, but there are themes that echo throughout these conversations: the indelibility of family; his respect for stage acting versus what he saw as far easier film acting; and the importance of music to his work. He also speaks candidly of his youth in California, his early days as a playwright in New York City, his professionally formative time in London, his interests and influences, the mythology of the American Dream, his own plays, and more. In Conversations with Sam Shepard, the playwright reveals himself in his own words.
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Conversations with Sam Shepard

Conversations with Sam Shepard

Conversations with Sam Shepard

Conversations with Sam Shepard

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Overview

A prolific playwright, Sam Shepard (1943-2017) wrote fifty-six produced plays, for which he won many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize. He was also a compelling, Oscar-nominated film actor, appearing in scores of films. Shepard also published eight books of prose and poetry and was a director (directing the premiere productions of ten of his plays as well as two films); a musician (a drummer in three rock bands); a horseman; and a plain-spoken intellectual. The famously private Shepard gave a significant number of interviews over the course of his public life, and the interviewers who respected his boundaries found him to be generous with his time and forthcoming on a wide range of topics.

The selected interviews in Conversations with Sam Shepard begin in 1969 when Shepard, already a multiple Obie winner, was twenty-six and end in 2016, eighteen months before his death from complications of ALS at age seventy-three. In the interim, the voice, the writer, and the man evolved, but there are themes that echo throughout these conversations: the indelibility of family; his respect for stage acting versus what he saw as far easier film acting; and the importance of music to his work. He also speaks candidly of his youth in California, his early days as a playwright in New York City, his professionally formative time in London, his interests and influences, the mythology of the American Dream, his own plays, and more. In Conversations with Sam Shepard, the playwright reveals himself in his own words.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781496836618
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Publication date: 09/30/2021
Series: Literary Conversations Series
Pages: 326
Sales rank: 690,205
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jackson R. Bryer is professor emeritus of English at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is editor of Conversations with Lillian Hellman and Conversations with Thornton Wilder and coeditor of Conversations with August Wilson and Conversations with Neil Simon, all published by University Press of Mississippi.

Robert M. Dowling is professor of English at Central Connecticut State University. He is author of Eugene O'Neill: A Life in Four Acts, which was named a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist for biography in 2015.

Mary C. Hartig is coeditor of Conversations with August Wilson; William Inge: Essays and Reminiscences on the Plays and the Man; and The Facts on File Companion to American Drama.

Table of Contents

Introduction xiii

Chronology xxiii

Sam Shepard: Writer on the Way Up Mel Gussow / 1969 3

Sam Shepard: Metaphors, Mad Dogs, and Old Time Cowboys TQ Editors Kenneth Chubb / 1974 5

Interview with Newsweek Newsweek / 1976 27

Sam Shepard: A Play for Every Life Style Sylvie Drake / 1979 37

Sam Shepard: Off-Broadway's Street Cowboy Robert Goldberg / 1980 43

Sam Shepard Stewart McBride / 1980 52

The True West Interviews John Dark / 1981 59

A Conversation with Sam Shepard Amy Lippman / 1983 68

The New American Hero Pete Hamill / 1983 85

Unknown Territory Ross Wetzsteon / 1985 98

Sam Shepard: Geography of a Horse Dreamer Kevin Sessums / 1988 105

"Silent Tongues": An Interview with Sam Shepard Carol Rosen / 1991 126

Sam Shepard, Tues., Dec. 14, 1993 Mel Gussow / 1993 150

Slay 'em Again, Sam Brian Case / 1996 166

Sam Shepard Mona Simpson Jeanne McCulloch Benjamin Howe / 1997 173

Shepard on Shepard: An Interview Matthew Roudané / 2000 185

Sam Shepard Mel Gussow / 2002 201

Rock-and-Roll Jesus with a Cowboy Mouth (Revisited) Don Shewey / 2004 225

Sam Shepard's Master Class in Playwriting Brian Bartels / 2006 239

A Nod from One Sam to Another Fintan O'Toole / 2007 252

Sam Shepard Michael Almereyda / 2011 257

Sam Shepard: "America Is on Its Way Out as a Culture" Laura Barton / 2014 270

An Urban Cowboy Returns to Broadway Alexis Soloski / 2016 276

Index 281

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