Sherwood's creative journey led him from The Petrified Forest to the celebrated Idiot’s Delight, the inaugural triumph among his trio of Pulitzer Prize–winning plays. Unveiled to the world in 1936, this play delves into the lives of a diverse collection of European travelers, each ensnared within the confines of a hotel as the ominous shadows of World War II loom large. Intriguingly, the play preempted the actual onset of war by several years.

Among the notorious outlaws of the early 1930s, Duke Mantee's character seems to echo the infamous Charles ‘‘Pretty Boy’’ Floyd, notorious for his alleged role in the murder of federal agents during the dramatic prisoner escape known as the ‘‘Kansas City Massacre,’’ a tale mirrored in the play's depiction of the ‘‘Oklahoma City Massacre.’’ The enigma and reality of Floyd's life are vividly captured in Michael Wallis’s biography, Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd (1992).

Edward Anderson’s novel Thieves Like Us (1935) stands as a pioneering narrative, charting the exploits of bank robbers who relentlessly evade the long arm of the law across the sprawling Southwest. Though currently out of print, its entire tale can be savored within the Library of America’s collection, Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s, curated by Horace McCoy.

During the gripping second act, Alan Squier draws parallels between the diner’s predicament and the harrowing events depicted in All Quiet on the Western Front, the 1930 war novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque, which evidently served as a wellspring of inspiration for Sherwood.

Gabby Maple's embrace of French art is passionately kindled by the verse of the fifteenth-century poet François Villon. His complete works, meticulously edited and accompanied by an English translation and commentary by Barbara N. Sargent-Baur, are available in the 1994 edition published by University of Toronto Press.

In stark contrast to Gabby’s romanticism, Alan Squier articulates his nihilistic worldview through references to T. S. Eliot’s 1925 poem, "The Hollow Men," a cornerstone of modernist literature.

For an authentic glimpse into the era when this narrative unfolds, Studs Terkel’s Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression (1970) is an invaluable resource. Terkel’s collection of interviews provides raw insights from everyday individuals, painting a vivid picture of life and perspectives during those tumultuous times.

In the bustling literary circles of 1920s and 1930s New York, Sherwood stood as a beacon of fame. James R. Gaines’s Wit’s End: Days and Nights of the Algonquin Round Table offers an insightful and amusing chronicle of the legendary social circle that Sherwood frequented. This group of writers and actors was renowned for their spirited and sharp-witted discourse, as vividly documented in Gaines's 1977 publication by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.