Wilson, Lanford (1937-2011), was a notable American playwright. Some of his dramas feature large numbers of characters on the margin of society, who suffer from alienation and seek a sense of community in urban America. Other plays center on several generations of a Midwestern family, who often try to discover a meaningful vocation in life.
Wilson won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize in drama for Talley’s Folly (1979), a love story about Matt Friedman, a 42-year-old Jew, and Sally Talley, a 31-year-old non-Jew from a bigoted family. The Fifth of July (1978) also deals with the Talley family following the end of the Vietnam War. Balm in Gilead (1965) is a realistic portrait of life in an all-night New York City diner, while The Hot l Baltimore (1973) describes residents of a rundown New York hotel. The autobiographical memory play Lemon Sky (1970) tells how a father-son conflict leads to a family’s disintegration. In The Mound Builders (1976), Wilson raised issues about the preservation of cultural heritage versus material progress. Angels Fall (1982) describes the reactions of people after a nuclear accident. Burn This (1987) focuses on the nature of artistic creativity. Redwood Curtain (1993) explores the impact of the Vietnam War on America in the early 1990’s. Rain Dance (2003) portrays the impact of the development of the atomic bomb on four characters in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in 1945.
Wilson was born on April 13, 1937, in Lebanon, Missouri. The town serves as the background for several of his plays. He died on March 23, 2011.
