Lanford Wilson (born 1937 in Lebanon, Missouri) is an American playwright. He began his career as a playwright in the early 1960s at the Caffe Cino in Greenwich Village with one-act plays such as LUDLOW FAIR, HOME FREE and THE MADNESS OF LADY BRIGHT. He soon moved to off-Broadway with BALM IN GILEAD in 1965 and THE RIMERS OF ELDRICH in 1965. Wilson was a founding member of the Circle Repertory Company, (better known as Circle Rep) which began in 1969. Many of his plays were first presented there, including HOT L BALTIMORE, which won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Outer Critics' Circle Award, and the Obie Award, and FIFTH OF JULY, which later had a successful production on Broadway. Wilson's 1979 play, TALLEY'S FOLLY won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
