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Ed Bullins A Literary Biography Samuel A. Hay

This book on the prize-winning African American playwright Ed Bullins is the first to chronicle the life and work of the man who dominated the New York theatre scene between 1968 and 1982. With his presentations of street life, Bullins transformed the Protest and Art-theatre traditions founded by W. E. B. DuBois and Alain Locke and made important contributions to black theatre. In Ed Bullins: A Literary Biography, Samuel Hay, author, theatre historian, critic, and director of Bullins's work, studies Bullins within the context of African American intellectual history and dramatic theory. During the writing of this book, Bullins turned over his journals and personal papers, including rehearsal notes, to Hay and made himself available for interviews. Given Bullins's private nature, Hay is extremely successful in providing a complete portrait. While the rich narrative is full of facts and biographic detail, it also burgeons with personal insight.

"Ed Bullins is the first serious, full-length study of this seminal playwright. Samuel Hay, his biographer, has given us a personal and wide-ranging study about a theatre artist whose work brought new forms and fresh characters to the American stage." —James V. Hatch, Professor Emeritus of English and theatre, City College and University of New York.

African American Life Series $39.95s cloth / ISBN 0-8143-2616-1 288 pages 26 illustrations 1997 Choice Outstanding Academic Title