Sam Shepard was as complex as the deep characters he created for the theatre and literature. A restless man who liked forward movement, whose complicated past filled the artistic well necessary to develop deep complex familial dramas that eventually led to his 1979 Pulitzer Prize winning Buried Child. An admirer of Beckett, he left his wife and son for a time to begin to establish his place in American Theatre and as it turned out to develop a lifelong relationship with Patti Smith. When he made his way back to his family, he bought a house which served as a home-base for he and his wife O-Lan, their son and her family, including her step-father, Johnny Dark. Sam and Johnny just connected from the start and developed a mutual understanding of each other, forging a 45 year relationship which outlasted even his leaving O-Lan for Jessica Lange.
The letters between them were deeply personal and will have to serve as the closest thing we have to a Sam Shepard memoir, as he never had any interest in writing one before his death. Honestly, to see a true picture of an artist, one only has to look at the body of work they produced to see inside. If you haven’t seen Paris Texas (which he co- wrote with filmmaker Wim Wenders), do yourself a favor, especially if you’re a writer who wants to learn how to create deep, brutually honest characterization. I am nearly finished with this book of interesting letters between Sam and Johnny – I highly recommend.
“The Lute” ~ Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938)
Just Under the Surface 