an important speech about breast cancer by Mary Martin's character, the actress declared she would complete her contractual obligation, but would not open the play on Broadway, and the show closed on the road. Kirkwood wrote a book about the production of Legends! titled Diary of a Mad Playwright: Perilous Adventures on the Road with Mary Martin and Carol Channing. A revival of Legends! was mounted with Joan Collins and Linda Evans of Dynasty fame. It toured more than 30 cities in the United States and Canada beginning in autumn 2006, but did not appear on Broadway as had been planned. Personal life In 1968, Kirkwood signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War (his novel Some Kind of Hero is centered on a prisoner of war in, and back home from, Vietnam). Kirkwood died in his Manhattan apartment of AIDS-related complications in 1989. Literary prize In Kirkwood's memory, his friends and admirers established the James Kirkwood Literary Prize to honor new generations of fiction writers for their literary achievements. The competition is hosted by the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, and the winner is determined by Andrew Morse, the prize's benefactor. Works Novels There Must Be a Pony! Good Times/Bad Times Hit Me with a Rainbow Some Kind of Hero (adapted by Kirkwood into the film of the same name) P.S. Your Cat Is Dead I Teach Flying (unfinished) Plays U.T.B.U. (Unhealthy To Be Unpleasant) Legends! A Chorus Line (book – co-authored with Nicholas Dante) Stage Stuck (co-authored with Jim Piazza) Nonfiction American Grotesque Diary of a Mad Playwright: Perilous Adventures on the Road with Mary Martin and Carol Channing, about production of the play Legends! (Dutton, 1989) Filmography References Further reading External links Biography at GLBTQ.com (an encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture) The James Kirkwood collection at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University The James Leo Herlihy collection at the same location with poems and correspondence 1924 births 1989 deaths 20th-century American novelists American tax resisters American gay writers Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners Drama Desk Award winners 20th-century American male actors American LGBT dramatists and playwrights American LGBT novelists 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male novelists American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers 20th-century LGBT people Brewster Academy alumni Writers from Los Angeles Novelists from California