Author Description

Collected here for the first time are the major plays of award-winning authors Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. This edition represents the only attempt to date to explore the range and nature of the team's collaboration. With introductions to each of the eight works - Inherit the Wind, Auntie Mame, The Gang's All Here, Only in America, A Call on Kuprin, Diamond Orchid, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, and First Monday in October - editor Alan Woods places the plays in their critical and historical contexts. Although they are known primarily as successful commercial writers, Lawrence and Lee have always shared a passionate commitment to larger social issues. Their plays were written not just to entertain a broad audience but to present some "problem" ideas - for example, the evolution versus creationism debate in Inherit the Wind, perhaps their most famous collaboration. While some of the plays collected here have become classics of the American stage, others remain obscure. In his introductions, Woods explores the factors that contributed to the success or failure of each play, including information about the actors and directors involved in the original production and the contemporary critical response.