Among American playwrights whose plays were first produced in the 1960s, Lanford Wilson deserves close study for several reasons. First, Wilson has been unusually prolific. In less than twenty years, from 1963 until 1980, over thirty of his plays were produced in New York City. Second, Wilson is a playwright with considerable artistic gifts. His plays have received numerous awards, including the Drama Desk Vernon Rice Award for The Rimers of Eldritch in 1967; the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Outer Circle Award, and an Obie for The Hot l Baltimore in 1973; another Obie for The Mound Builders in 1975; and, most recently, a Pulitzer Prize for Talley's Folly in 1980. And finally, Wilson's career as playwright parallels two important movements in the history of American theatre: the emergence of Off-Off-Broadway in the 1960s, and the important influence of regional theatre companies on theatre in the 1970s. Wilson's early plays were...