13 - Words on Williams

Summary

BIOGRAPHIES

The publication of the long-awaited first volume of Lyle Leverich's biography of Williams, Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams, makes 1995 a year of important contributions to Williams studies. Leverich, the biographer authorized by Williams in 1979, relies heavily on Williams's early journals to sketch a portrait of a man divided between the public “Tennessee” and the private “Tom.” The first volume ends with the success of The Glass Menagerie in 1945, so the student interested in Williams before fame will find much of interest here. Leverich's book offers detailed documentation for all his sources. Documentation is what is missing from Bruce Smith's account of Williams's last years, Costly Performances. Tennessee Williams: The Last Stage (1990). Smith seems more intent on proving the importance of his own friendship to Williams than on providing new information about the playwright's last years. Those interested in the first production of Clothes for a Summer Hotel might find Smith's book useful, centering as it does on the difficulties Williams encountered in staging his last full-length play.