SAM SHEPARD

His early work included Cowboys (1964) and The Rock Garden (1964). He received Obie Awards for Chicago (1965); Icarus’ Mother; (1966) La Turista (1967);Forensic and the Navigators (1867); Action (1974) and Curse of the Starving Class; (1977, Obie Award 1977); Buried Child (1978) earned him the Pulitzer Prize in Drama as well as an Obie. This play, along with Savage Love (1979) and True West (1981), were violent portrayals of American family life told through black humor.

His best-known work is the 1983 play Fool for Love, which won an Obie Award. It is a story of love and incest set in the American West.

Continuing to explore the mythic dimensions of Western lore, he published The Sad Lament of Pecos Bill on the Even of Killing His Wife in 1983. He followed this with A Lie of the Mind (1985), which won the New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award 1986).