RaveAmerican Theater\"...riveting ... Hartigan’s book is the first to examine in depth how this high school dropout, raised by a single mother, went on to become a startlingly fresh, even essential voice in the theatre. Hartigan explores Wilson’s sprawling oeuvre and traces how his work integrated the complexities of his life, his poetic sensibility, and his commitment to authenticating Black experiences onstage ... Hartigan provides plenty of backstage anecdotes and private dramas, but keeps Wilson’s creative hardships, growth, and accomplishments front and center ... Above all, Hartigan affirms what Wilson was after, and achieved to a degree which still seems miraculous: a body of work that stands with the best of world literature, for the theatre or otherwise. Hartigan, with this first comprehensive biography, has honored Wilson in the way he deserves.\
