A WAYWARD QUEST, which was first published in 1960, is the autobiography of a woman who for forty years was one of the most important figures in the American theater—and who loved every minute of it. Small, vivacious, imaginative, Theresa Helburn was a wonderfully attractive person who at one time or another knew most of the great talents of the century—from Gertrude Stein and Isadora Duncan (her youthful heroines during a sojourn in Paris) to G. B. Shaw and Eugene O’Neill. Her consuming interest in the theater, her convictions about its past and present and dreams for its future, form the background of her story, against this runs a sparkling stream of stories and anecdotes about people and plays she knew and loved.