John Sayles--winner of the John Steinbeck Award and others--has been called the "conscience of the independent film world" and the screenwriter's screenwriter. Silver City and Other Screenplays is a collection of Sayles's greatest work, something that will delight his legion of fans and also aspiring screenwriters and film students who will regard the book as a master class in the art of screenwriting. Silver City and Other Screenplays includes Sayles's most celebrated work--including Matewan, Return of the Secaucus Seven, Lone Star, and Passion Fish (for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay), and his latest film Silver City, a spirited lampoon and a timely, toxic warning about the present state of American democracy.