Works
The Compass: the Improvisational Theater That Revolutionized American Comedy
A vivid recreation of the mid-Fifties landscape, the personalities and the neurotic magic whereby The Compass Players, a group of University of Chicago bohemians and dropouts (including Mike Nichols and Elaine May), made theater history. They did not plan to be funny or to transform American comedy. It happened anyway.
Mingus/Mingus: Two Memoirs
Charles Mingus still looms large. These two excellent memoirs – funny, tender, and revealing... add much to our understanding of this complex figure. As young Ann Arbor writers, Coleman and Young met Mingus while still in college. His abiding presence in their lives animate this work.