Screenwriters: America's Storytellers in Portrait

Santa Monica, CA: Angel City Press, 1999. First Edition, First Printing so stated with full number line. Hardcover. Very good +/At least VG. 127pp. incl. index. Square 8to.(23.5 cm.) Glossy photo illustrated boards, heavy mylar transparent jacket titled in silver letters. Portraits of some 45 screenwriters coupled with written exigis gathered from interviews, their own writing, miscelaneous public quotes etc. ranging in length from mini essays to bon mots (aphoristic modal length). We tend to run screaming from this kind of thing, aren't they usually a cynical rip-offy kind of psuedo-book? This one's better than than. These are in fact people we rarely hear from and see even less frequently. Who knew that Frank Pierson wrote the screenplays for Cat Ballou, Cool Hand Luke, and Dog Day Afternoon? I mean, really. He quotes Tennyson, or at least there is a quote by Tennyson next to his portrait. Tennyson said: a good hymn-which is a song to God-is the most difficult thing to write, because is to both poetry and ordinary, to span the exalted and the commonplace. Same things are true of a good screenplay.