A Study Guide for William Inge's "Picnic," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

THE STORY: The play takes place on Labor day Weekend in the joint backyards of two middle-aged widows. The one house belongs to Flo Owens, who lives there with her two maturing daughters, Madge and Millie, and a boarder who is a spinster school tea

A Study Guide for William Inge's "Bus Stop," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

A Study Guide for William Inge's "Come Back, Little Sheba," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

“Inge reveals the powerful mysteries in our lives.”—Tennessee Williams Four plays by a quintessential twentieth-century playwright—Come Back, Little Sheba; Picnic, winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Bus Stop; and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs—with a foreword by the author. “This nice, well-bred next door neighbor, with the accent that belongs to no region except the region of good manners, has begun to uncover a world withing a world, and it is not the world that his welcome prepared you to meet, it's a secret world that exists behind the screen of neighborly decorum. And that's when and where you meet the talent of William Inge.”—Tennessee Williams “Inge has presented with astounding veracity the oppressive banality of the lives of his characters: the events of their lives have the nerve-tightening regularity of a dripping faucet. His female characters especially are engulfed by the bathos of their lives, and Inge capitalizes on this fact in order to heighten dramatically the moment of personal crisis which comes to each of them. In his four major successes—Come Back, Little Sheba; Picnic; Bus Stop; and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs—the play carries the audience through the moment of crisis; and the final curtain falls upon a note of hope and fulfillment.”—R. Baird Shuman

This book is a biography of Willian Inge, the American playwright who committed suicide in 1973. By 1962 he had written an unprecedented string of Broadway hits Picnic, Bus Stop, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and Come Back, Little Sheba. All four plays had become successful films featuring top Hollywood stars. Inge had received a Pulitzer Prize for Picnic and an Academy Award for his screenplay, Splendour in the Grass. Even his long-time friend and mentor, Tennesse Williams, was envious of his success.

Cherie was a chanteuse. She said, “I call m'self Cherie. Thass all the name ya need -- like Hidegarde. I won a amateur contest down in Joplin, Missouri, and that got me a job in a night club in Kanz City. But working in a night club ain't all roses..." Bo Decker had his picture taken by Life magazine because he was a champion professional rodeo rider. Bo had heard about women only he'd hardly ever seen one. Bo was a large, beautiful hunk of man -- but green as new grass when it came to Cherie. Bo and Cherie got together when they were stranded at a bus stop one night. Their story is one of high humor -- a mixture of brag, heartache, bluster, and the funniest tough love affair ever put on stage, screen, or between the covers of a book. It is filled with comedy, compassion and tenderness.