True West: Sam Shepard’s Life, Work, and Times

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True West: Sam Shepard’s Life, Work, and TimesAuthor: Greenfield, RobertPublication Date: 04\/11\/2023Format: Hardcover\nA revelatory biography of the world famous playwright and actor Sam Shepard, whose work was matched by his equally dramaticlife, including his collaborations with the Rolling Stones andBob Dylan as well as his tumultuousrelationships with Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, and Jessica LangeTrue West: Sam Shepards Life, Work, and Timesis the story of an American icon, a lasting portrait of Sam Shepard as he really was, revealed by those who knew him best. This sweeping biography charts Shepards long and complicated journey from a small town in southern California to his standing as an internationally known playwright and movie star. Theson of an alcoholic father, Shepard crafted a public persona as an authentic American archetype: the loner, the cowboy, the drifter, a stranger in a strange land. Despite his great critical and financial success, he seemed, like so many of his characters, to remain perpetually dispossessed.Much like Robert Greenfields biographies of Jerry Garcia and Timothy Leary, this book delves deeply into Shepards life as well as the ways in which his work illuminates it.True Westtakes readers through the world of downtown theater in lower Manhattan in the early sixties, the jazz scene at the Village Gate, fringe theatre in London in the seventies, Bob Dylans legendaryRolling Thundertour, the making of classic films likeZabriskie Point, Days of Heaven,andThe Right Stuff, and Broadway productions ofBuried Child, True West,andFool for Love.For this definitive biography, Greenfield interviewed dozens of people who knew Shepard well, many of whom had never before spoken on the record about him. While exploring his relationships with Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Jessica Lange across the long arc of his brilliant career, Greenfield makes the case for Shepard not just as a great American writer but a unique figure who first brought the sensibility of rock n roll to theater.