In the following study of Wilson's Talley's Folly, Gene Barnett presents reasons for its critical success and popular appeal.

When Wilson began to draft the Talley family history in preparation for work on Fifth of July, he became fascinated with a Talley daughter named Sally. So reversing the order of creation, he made her a mate and began to imagine their middle-age romance. "I liked the two characters," he says simply, "and I wanted to see the play." Remembering the wounds, both physical and emotional, that lacerated his fictional family, he decided that, for this love story, he "should go all the way and make it the sweet valentine it should be."

When Fifth of July was completed and in rehearsal, Wilson made up a biography of Aunt Sally Friedman in order to help the actress playing the role to understand her, "a history for her to...