Paul Zindel, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

Michael J. Meyer (DePaul University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1964

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

Paul Zindel is perhaps best known for his young adult novels including The Pigman, My Darling, My Hamburger, and Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball, but the height of his career was in 1971 when he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the Moon Marigolds. According to Zindel's introduction to Marigolds, the play is semi-autobiographical relating to his dysfunctional relationship with his own mother, a dissatisfied woman who was constantly thinking up schemes for preposterous undertakings that were designed to make her family get rich quick. Although all the characters in the play are female, most critics consider the lead character, M…

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3137 words

Citation: Meyer, Michael J.. "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 April 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=26469, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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