Edie’’s Story

The introduction of the pill in the 1960s opened a new chapter of human sexuality, which for many was the most liberating factor in their lives. For others, however, it created conflicts as with Edie Carter, a young southern virgin who finds it problematic to enter the new era because of her strict, small-town upbringing. A conventional marriage to the handsomest guy in her senior class appears to solve her inner conflict... at first. Her story includes a grand tour of Europe where she enjoys a romantic relationship with a striking young Frenchman. Back in the USA, she spends a season in summer stock where she meets the famous star of a popular soap opera who handily seduces her. Later in the Big Apple, hoping for a break in show business, she scratches out a living that provides only a tenuous existence; she gradually enters a permissive way of life, a process facilitated by her youthful good looks that attract all sorts of men. But her moral training is not easily put aside, and her life is never without internal struggles... particularly when an opportunity of ultimate revenge presents itself.

A native of North Carolina, Wisner Washam received his BA with the Carolina Playmakers at the University in Chapel Hill, then studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in England. From there he went to New York, intent on an acting career. During four seasons at the American Shakespeare Festival his duties came to include stage managing, and this led to a number of years in that position for five Broadway shows, including Neil Simon’s ＂Star-Spangled Girl,＂ ＂Prisoner of Second Avenue,＂ and ＂Plaza Suite.＂ During the latter, he met his wife, actress Judith Barcroft. With her encouragement, he made a career change into the field of soap opera writing, fortunately at the right hand of daytime’s doyenne, Agnes Nixon, where he stayed for nearly twenty years as headwriter of ＂All My Children.＂ Subsequently, he worked on ＂The Guiding Light＂ and on development projects for Fox as well as French and German television. He’s won three Emmy Awards for his work in daytime. His screenplay, ＂The Cloning,＂ was selected by the Writers Guild of America for a reading at Lincoln Center. He subsequently expanded that tale into a novel which is available as a paperback and on Kindle. He and his wife live in Manhattan.