Eugene O'Neill is one of America's most celebrated playwrights, but relatively few Americans know the name of the man who essentially gave O' Neill his first chance at greatness: George Cram, Jig Cook, one of America's most colorful and original thinkers and the founder of the Provincetown Players, the first company to stage O'Neill. Cook's story, with all its hopes, dreams, and disappointments, is told in The Road to the Temple.

First published in 1927 in the United States and reprinted in 1941, this biography is the work of Cook's third wife, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Susan...