The Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and a Tony--any play which sweeps the three most coveted awards for a given Broadway season secures for its creator a place in twentieth-century theatre history. Such a coup was achieved by Howard Sackler's The Great White Hope for the 1968-1969 season. The phenomenal recognition accorded Sackler at the end of the 1960s may have made him internationally famous, but he had been successfully earning his living in the theatre prior to 1968. Even though none of his plays has received the stellar prominence of The Great White Hope, Sackler has had, and continues to have, an active and productive life in the theatre.

Born in New York City to Martin and Evelyn Rapaport Sackler, Howard Sackler spent a large portion of his early life in Florida. He later returned to New York to attend Brooklyn College, from which...