Coyote: The Dramatic Lives of Sam Shepard

ISBN: 1501195735

Author: Dowling, Robert M.

Condition: New

A revelatory, magisterial biography of Sam Shepard-the dark, rugged genius of modern American theater and film, the poet laureate of Americas 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 Dylans 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. Dowlings biography reveals this playwright, actor, and filmmaker as weve never known him before.In this authoritative and gripping biography, acclaimed biographer Robert M. Dowling dives into Shepards psyche, his imagination and his soul, to craft the most comprehensive and revelatory account yet of Shepards enduring work and tumultuous life. Ranging from Shepards 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 members of Shepards 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 Shepards life, and his era, in all its splendor and chaos, from the 1960s counterculture to the rise of Trumpism.Situating the facts of Shepards spirited and darkly complex personality alongside keen analyses of Shepards ingenious writing, this new biography couples rich storytelling with scholarly rigor to present the definitive biography of one of Americas most innovative and troubled creative geniuses.