Home › Books › Coyote: The Dramatic Lives of Sam Shepard
Coyote: The Dramatic Lives of Sam Shepard
by
50/99
Critics' Rating Index
60/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
51/99
Volume of Reviews
16/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
A revelatory, magisterial biography of Sam Shepard—the dark, rugged genius of modern American theater and film, "the poet laureate of America's emotional badlands" (Jack Kroll).Sam Shepard was a true American original. A theater and film icon who lived life on a mythic scale, Shepard became an embodiment of the fierce independence and wild freedom of the American West. Taking us from the creative explosion of downtown New York City in the 1960s to Bob Dylan's legendary Rolling Thunder Revue tour, from Hollywood backlots and film shoots in the Mojave Desert to the horse ranches where Shepard went to escape it all, Robert M. Dowling's biography reveals this playwright, actor, and filmmaker as we've never known him before. In this authoritative and gripping biography, acclaimed biographer Robert M. Dowling dives into Shepard's psyche, his imagination and his soul, to craft the most comprehensive and revelatory account yet of Shepard's enduring work and tumultuous life. Ranging from Shepard's romances with icons like Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, and Jessica Lange, to his groundbreaking artistic contributions to theater and film like True West, Buried Child, The Right Stuff, Days of Heaven, and Paris, Texas, Dowling draws on previously untapped archival resources and the help of Shepard's family, close friends, lovers, and collaborators to place this artistic legacy in the context of the historic upheavals that compelled this extraordinary writer to so vividly record the American zeitgeist. In this biography, we see Shepard's life, and his era, in all its splendor and chaos, from the 1960s counterculture to the rise of Trumpism. Situating the facts of Shepard's spirited and darkly complex personality alongside keen analyses of Shepard's ingenious writing, this new biography couples rich storytelling with scholarly rigor to present the definitive biography of one of America's most innovative and troubled creative geniuses.
Reviews
"So, too, might some deeper context about Shepard's place in the theater landscape ..."
"Readers will emerge with a deeper understanding of the roots of Shepard's plays, and of an endlessly complex man."
"[There's] an amazing bit of detective work ..."
"The author...puts his subject's journal entries and family correspondences to good use ..."
"Coyote is not the first biography of Shepard, but it is finally the one that an artist of his stature deserves ..."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!