With more than fifty-five plays to his creditincluding the 1979 Pulitzer Prizewinning Buried Childan Oscar nod for his portrayal of Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff, and an onscreen persona thats been aptly summed up as zGary Cooper in denim,y Sam Shepards impact on American theater and film ranks with the greatest playwrights and actors of the past half-century. Despite these accomplishments and moresix collections of prose, songwriting with Bob Dylan, filmmaking with Robert Frank and Michelangelo Antonioni, as well as romantic relationships with rocker Patti Smith and actress Jessica LangeShepard seems anything but satisfied. Sam Shepard: A Life details his lifelong bouts of insecurity and anxiety, and delves deeply into his relationship with his alcoholic father and his own battle with the bottle. Also examined for the first time in-depth are Shepards tumultuous relationship with Lange, and his decadeslong adherence to the teachings of Russian spiritualist G. I. Gurdjieff. Throughout this new biography, Winters gets to the heart of the enigma that is Sam Shepard, presenting a compelling and comprehensive account of his life and work.