Adler, Thomas P., American Drama, 1940—1960: A Critical History, Twayne Publishers, 1994.

Adler provides a background of the theatrical scene at the time when The Desperate Hours appeared.

Heilman, Robert Bechtold, Tragedy and Melodrama: Versions of Experience, University of Washington Press, 1968.

A famous drama critic examines the art and skill involved in writing a play in a generic form, studying the artistic precedents that go back to antiquity.

Nathan, George Gene, The Theatre of the Fifties, Alfred A. Knopf, 1953.

Written at about the same time that Hayes was working in New York theatre and writing this play, Nathan gives an impressionistic sense of what life was like at the time.

Rosen, Carol, Plays of Impasse: Contemporary Drama Set in Confining Situations, Princeton University Press, 1983.

Rosen does not specifically look at The Desperate Hours, but her book does examine the category of plays that this one falls...