One of America's preeminent dramatists, Horton Foote returns to the fictional town of Harrison, Texas, with two captivating plays about the bewildering and unsettling encroachment of change in the American south. In a series of haunting dramatic monologues, The Carpetbagger's Children tells the story of the three daughters of Joseph Thompson, who struggle against the pressures of modern life to uphold their father's dying wish--that the estate he built in the years following the Civil War never be divided among his heirs. It is a timeless and elegiac portrayal of a once-vibrant family slowly disintegrating over time. The Actor tells the hilarious and moving story of a young man, bitten by the acting bug, who'll make any sacrifice to keep his dream of a theatrical career from being crushed under the weight of his parents' expectations for him. It's a charming exploration of artistic ambition from one of modern theater's greatest artists....

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From the Oscar-winning screenwriter of To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies comes this 1995 Pulitzer Prize-winning play--"an American original" (Variety). Houston, 1950: A Texas couple's attempts to make sense of the death of their son are futher complicated when the man he had been "rooming with" in Atlanta arrives....

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Horton Foote has chronicled the experiences of American life in both his internationally acclaimed plays and his Academy Award-winning screenplays To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies. Now, in this poignant and delightful memoir, he tells the story of how he discovered his own vocation.

Horton Foote recalls his youthful aspirations, leaving his Depression-era Texas home to become an actor at age sixteen. He lands in New York City to search for work -- and to study with some of the great Russian and American drama teachers of the 1930s. But after mixed results on the stage, he finally recognizes his true passion: the written word.

Collaborating with such legendary talents as Tennessee Williams, Agnes de Mille, and Lillian Gish, Foote thrived in a world of artistic commitment and creative passion. Yet through it all, Horton maintained his genuine Southern charm, often returning home to Wharton, the town that nurtured and inspired him as a storyteller.

From one of the most moving and distinctive voices of our time, Beginnings is a rare, personal look at a fascinating era in American life and at the making of an American literary icon....