Shop

Tennessee Williams Memoirs

$16.95

For Tennessee Williams the past is always present. As he weaves his Memoirs, the playwright continually shifts and intermingles times and places-his childhood in Mississippi and St. Louis; his struggle as a “starving artist”; “overnight” success with The Glass Menageriein 1945; the death of his long-time companion Frank Merlo in 1962; confinement to a psychiatric ward in 1969, and his subsequent recovery from alcohol and drug addiction in the 1970s. Of course Memoirsis also filled with amazing friends who Williams often hilariously-sometimes fondly, sometimes not-remembers: Laurette Taylor, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, Elia Kazan, Marlon Brando, Vivian Leigh, Carson McCullers, Anna Magnani, Elizabeth Taylor, and Tallulah Bankhead to name just a few.

Much has changed in American since 1975 when Williams’ candor in Memoirs-about being a gay man, his love life, sexual encounters, and drug use-caused a bit of a scandal, but some things have not. Filmmaker John Waters provides much-needed perspective to this edition of Memoirswith a bold and witty introduction that is characterized by his undiluted admiration and respect for Tennessee Williams as an artist and a man. In addition, noted Williams scholar Allean Hale has contributed a brief afterword detailing a few of Williams more intriguing discrepancies.