In the four-month period from December 1938 to March 1939, at a time when his stature as a mainstay of the American drama between the two world wars was in serious decline, Philip Barry brought two important new plays to Broadway. One, Here Come the Clowns, drew a respectful if baffled reaction from critics and audiences; the other, The Philadelphia Story, became a major hit on both stage and screen. Together these plays epitomize Barry 's long, seemingly conflicting but in fact complementary pursuits of worldly fulfillment and spiritual truth. Here Come the Clowns marks perhaps his most comprehensive attempt to probe the ultimate meanings of life but fell short of the one-hundred-performance threshold that signifies commercial success on Broadway. Six weeks later, The Philadelphia Story began its run of 417 shows and reaffirmed Barry as the master of the romantic "high comedy" for which he is best remembered--not least because...