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PLEASE NOTE: If you need an item quick, don't order from us; amazon is your best bet. We do appreciate you ordering from us directly (the author and the publisher make more from the sale this way), but due to the increased number of orders and covid-related shipping changes, our shipping takes considerably longer than it used to. Please be patient, as it can take 2 to 3 weeks to process and ship orders. Please email us about an order only if it's absolutely necessary. We REALLY appreciate your patience for this, and appreciate your business! THANK YOU!
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PONIES & RAINBOWS: THE LIFE OF JAMES KIRKWOOD by Sean Egan - BearManor Manor
BearManor Media

PONIES & RAINBOWS: THE LIFE OF JAMES KIRKWOOD (paperback)

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James Kirkwood is the forgotten man of American letters

In 1975, he had two shows playing on Broadway, while his latest novel Some Kind of Hero saw reviewers comparing him to Saul Bellow and Joseph Heller. One of those shows – A Chorus Line – won him a Pulitzer Prize for his co-writing contribution and went on to become the biggest stage phenomenon in history. Yet today his work is largely out of print and his name rarely mentioned.

Kirkwood led a life that was as gripping as any of his novels or plays. The son of silent screen stars, he grew up in Hollywood surrounded by celebrities and opulence before his parents went broke. His childhood was littered with trauma, including finding the dead body of his mother's fiancé when he was twelve. Before writing, his professional life encompassed the coast guard, stand-up comedy and soap opera acting. His private life was equally varied, involving loving sexual relationships with both men and women.

Sean Egan – author of seventeen books – took over seven years to write this definitive biography, interviewing more than sixty of Kirkwood’s family, lovers, colleagues, friends and adversaries in the process. In a sweeping narrative that takes in Hollywood in the Twenties, the boom era of New York nightclubs in the Forties and the Eighties AIDS holocaust, Ponies & Rainbows both details a remarkable life and seeks to re-establish an even more remarkable talent.

Interviewees include: Gary Beach, Vasili Bogazianos, Ahmet Ertegun, Bill Gile, Milton Katselas, Terence Kilburn, Larry Kramer, Arthur Laurents, Baayork Lee, Jim Marrs, Vivian Matalon, Donna McKechnie, Terrence McNally, Donald Oliver, Richard Seff, Zachary Sklar, Liz Smith, David Spencer, Elaine Stritch and Robert C. Wilson.

ISBN 9781593936808

Article from Electric Literature

Review from DC Theatre Scene

Article in The Dramatists Guild of America Newsletter

Article in the East Hampton/Southampton Press

Review from The Examiner

Review from the Barnstable Patriot

Review from the Box Turtle Bulletin