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The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein
Penguin Press
August 2011
On Sale: August 18, 2011
480 pages ISBN: 1594202982 EAN: 9781594202988 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
The authorized biography of Pulitzer Prize-winning
playwright Wendy Wasserstein. In Wendy and the Lost Boys bestselling author Julie Salamon
explores the life of playwright Wendy Wasserstein's most
expertly crafted character: herself. The first woman
playwright to win a Tony Award, Wendy Wasserstein was a
Broadway titan. But with her high- pitched giggle and
unkempt curls, she projected an image of warmth and
familiarity. Everyone knew Wendy Wasserstein. Or thought
they did. Born on October 18, 1950, in Brooklyn, New York, to Polish
Jewish immigrant parents, Wendy was the youngest of Lola and
Morris Wasserstein's five children. Lola had big dreams for
her children. They didn't disappoint: Sandra, Wendy's
glamorous sister, became a high- ranking corporate executive
at a time when Fortune 500 companies were an impenetrable
boys club. Their brother Bruce became a billionaire
superstar of the investment banking world. Yet behind the
family's remarkable success was a fiercely guarded world of
private tragedies. Wendy perfected the family art of secrecy while cultivating
a densely populated inner circle. Her friends included
theater elite such as playwright Christopher Durang, Lincoln
Center Artistic Director André Bishop, former New York Times
theater critic Frank Rich, and countless others. And still almost no one knew that Wendy was pregnant when,
at age forty-eight, she was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital
to deliver Lucy Jane three months premature. The paternity
of her daughter remains a mystery. At the time of Wendy's
tragically early death less than six years later, very few
were aware that she was gravely ill. The cherished
confidante to so many, Wendy privately endured her greatest
heartbreaks alone. In Wendy and the Lost Boys, Salamon assembles the fractured
pieces, revealing Wendy in full. Though she lived an
uncommon life, she spoke to a generation of women during an
era of vast change. Revisiting Wendy's works-The Heidi
Chronicles and others-we see Wendy in the free space of the
theater, where her many selves all found voice. Here Wendy
spoke in the most intimate of terms about everything that
matters most: family and love, dreams and devastation. And
that is the Wendy of Neverland, the Wendy who will never
grow old.
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