Here is the original story of a true original the celebrated and internationally renowned director playwright and screenwriter Arthur Laurents whose creative genius continues to energize American stage and screen today. Say his name and images of EWest Side StoryE EGypsy Anastasia The Turning PointE and EThe Way We WereE appear. Laurents' highly praised memoir is a dazzling portrait of his life a as he recounts the great moments the trials and the joys of his incredible career. He takes us into his world peopled with the creative artists directors actors and personalities who came of age in the theatre and in Hollywood after WWII. Later back in New York he writes about jump-starting Barbra Streisand's career by casting her in EI Can Get It for You WholesaleE. He writes about the creation of EGypsyE with Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim. And he writes about coming together in a complex fraught collaboration with his three old pals Jerome Robbins Leonard Bernstein and Sondheim for EWest Side StoryE. Throughout Laurents is funny fierce and frank a a life recounted as richly as it was lived. This is a historic work. A 'must' for show biz mavens. a LIZ SMITH Newsday & Syndicated