Elaine May is one of the key architects of American comedy; an alumna of the influential Kennedy-era underground scene in Chicago that gave us the O.G. “Saturday Night Live” cast and film director ...

Her films reveled in the possibility of capturing the spontaneous beauty of improvisation. Elaine May poses for a portrait in a bowling alley in New York City, 1961. In Elaine May’s The Heartbreak Kid ...

Carrie Courogen borrows this witticism for the title of her essential new biography, Miss May Does Not Exist. Of May’s self-description, Courogen writes, “It would be easier to take at face value as a ...

Dwight Garner, a book critic for The New York Times, first discovered the comedy of Elaine May in high school, when a teacher gave him a recording of the improv comedy duo Nichols and May. He found ...

A new biography of the performer, writer and director Elaine May has the intensity to match its subject. By Dwight Garner When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an ...

Elaine May became famous at twenty-five and rich soon thereafter, but it took her another decade to figure out what to do with her life, by which point she was too far ahead of her time to fit in with ...

New York-based writer Carrie Courogen has been telling important stories for more than a decade. She’s worked with heavy hitting outlets such as Vanity Fair, Tatler, and Condé Nast. Her acclaimed ...

Elaine May, the subject of the book "Miss May Does Not Exist," is the rare film legend who has opted out of public life. (CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images) Elaine May is one of the key architects of ...