Publisher's Synopsis
The Backstory series of unique "oral histories" chronicles the lives and careers of notable Hollywood screenwriters—in their own words. Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age focused on the early sound era and the 1930s. Backstory 2 featured Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1940s and 1950s. Backstory 3 takes up the history of American screenwriting in the 1960s, through the experiences of fourteen key scenarists. These lively interviews, conducted by Pat McGilligan and others, feature Jay Presson Allen, George Axelrod, Walter Bernstein, Horton Foote, Walon Green, Charles B. Griffith, John Michael Hayes, Ring Lardner Jr., Wendell Mayes, Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., Arnold Schulman, Stirling Silliphant, and Terry Southern.
The series has proven useful and edifying for film students, scholars, and historians, for screenwriters and other professionals, and for film buffs in general. Applauded by reviewers and named among the "100 essential film books" by a Los Angeles Times-appointed panel, it is cited often and quoted in many film histories.
The series has proven useful and edifying for film students, scholars, and historians, for screenwriters and other professionals, and for film buffs in general. Applauded by reviewers and named among the "100 essential film books" by a Los Angeles Times-appointed panel, it is cited often and quoted in many film histories.
