Two new books take up that most durable of American subjects -- the uneasy space between what we imagine ourselves to be and what the record shows. In "Coyote: The Dramatic Lives of Sam Shepard," ...

Sam Shepard wasn’t born a cowboy. The actor and writer made himself into one. The dusty blue jeans, cattle drives, and folksy drawl suited his taciturn profile, giving Reagan-era America someone ...

Two actors are wriggling across the stage on their bellies. They’re earthworms, or maybe simply brothers, Cricket and Coyote, who want to become earthworms. They’re planning to write a screenplay ...