Neil Simon is a master of comedy and one of the most popular dramatists in the history of the American theater. His plays, which range from light romantic comedy and farce to drama, have entertained Broadway audiences for nearly four decades and have also been a mainstay for regional and amateur theater companies. Simon has furnished the books for hit musicals such as Sweet Charity (1966) and Promises, Promises (1968), has adapted more plays to movies than any other American dramatist, and has written ten original screenplays. Although ignored in the past by most literary scholars, Simon has begun to attract more serious critical attention, particularly since winning the Pulitzer Prize in drama in 1991 for Lost in Yonkers. Summing up the Pulitzer drama jury's decision, critic Douglas Watt wrote that Lost in Yonkers was "a mature work by an enduring (and often undervalued) American playwright."

The second son of Mamie...