The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams: Volume One 1920 - 1945 - Couverture rigide

Williams, Tennessee

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1840022264 ISBN 13 : 9781840022261

Editeur : Oberon Books Ltd, 2001

Synopsis

Tennessee Williams blazed onto the world stage after World War II with powerful dramas like A Streetcar Named Desire, Sweet Bird of Youth, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Night of the Iguana, all plays which reached mass audiences in star-studded film versions. No other modern playwright has achieved such worldwide popularity. Few other playwrights have such a grasp of what passions and fears lie trapped in the ordinary human heart. The Selected Letters lift the lid on the private workings of Williams' mind and reveal an eye for precise detail and dramatic structure. The letters chronicle the Williams family drama and follow "Tom" through a painful return to St Louis and later attendance at three midwestern universities until, in 1939, he assumes his famous persona, "Tennessee", and begins a transforming life on the road. The Selected Letters culminate in 1945 with his first Broadway success, The Glass Menagerie. Williams writes here with piety, wit and astute self-knowledge. These 330 letters, collected by two leading American Williams scholars, are presented with commentary as well as sketches and photographs, forming a virtual autobiography of the great American dramatist.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Tennessee Williams (Thomas Lanier Williams; 1911-83) was a US playwright, whose controversial plays dealt with themes of repressed sexuality and family conflict. Williams was the most popular playwright in America between 1945 and 1960, winning the Pulitzer Prize twice and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award four times. Amongst serious playwrights, only Eugene O'Neill equalled his achievements on the Broadway stage; several of Williams's plays were also made into successful films. The son of a shoe salesman, Williams grew up in some poverty in Mississippi and Missouri. Many of his early frustrations, which are reflected in his plays, arose from the prudery of his mother and the coarseness of his womanizing father, who, as his son's homosexuality became apparent, invariably referred to him as 'Miss Nancy'. The playwright revealed his homosexuality in his Memoirs (1975), having previously explored the subject in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly Last Summer. Williams tried his hand at fiction and poetry before turning to drama in the late 1930s, winning a Theatre Guild prize for the four one-act plays entitled American Blues in 1939. Recognition as a major playwright came with The Glass Menagerie, a tender work inspired by the tragic life of his sister, a schizophrenic. His next play, the brutal A Streetcar Named Desire, opened in 1947, winning the Pulitzer Prize and making a star of Marlon Brando. It was followed a year later by Summer and Smoke. In 1949, these three plays were running simultaneously in London. His later works included The Rose Tattoo (1951), Camino Real (1953), Orpheus Descending (1957), and SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH (1959), which opened with Paul Newman and Geraldine Page in the leads. By the late 1950s, Williams was being accused of repeating himself, and after Period of Adjustment (1960) and The Night of the Iguana (1961), his plays were received unenthusiastically. During his later years, Williams became increasingly dependent on drugs and alcohol, suffering a nervous breakdown in 1969. He died in 1983.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Oberon Books Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2001
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1840022264
• ISBN 13: 9781840022261
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 452
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible