Mel Gussow wrote the three previous volumes in this series, Conversations with Pinter, Conversations with Stoppard and Conversations with (and about) Beckett. He is also the author of the biography, Edward Albee: A Singular Journey and Gambon: A Life in Acting. He was the co-editor for the Library of America's two-volume edition of the plays of Tennessee Williams. His other books include Theatre On The Edge: New Visions, New Voices, a collection of theatre reviews and essays, and Don't Say Yes Until I Finish Talking: A Biography of Darryl F. Zanuck. He also wrote numerous profiles for The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker. As a longtime drama critic for The New York Times, Mel Gussow was the recipient of the prestigious George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller grant and other awards. In 2007, he was posthumously inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. Richard Eyre is a theatre director, writer and former Artistic Director of the National Theatre (a position he held from 1988 to 1997). He has worked widely in theatre and opera - including in the West End, at the National Theatre and the Royal Opera House, on Broadway and in Aix-en-Provence. His film and television work includes The Ploughman's Lunch, Tumbledown, Iris, Notes on a Scandal, and Changing Stages, a six-part look at twentieth-century theatre. He has received many awards for theatre, TV and film, and was knighted in 1997.