Williams, Tennessee (Vol. 8) - Williams, Tennessee 1914–

Williams, Tennessee 1914–

An American playwright, novelist, and short story writer who once was hailed as the most important playwright in America, Williams has been unsuccessful in recent years in meeting the standards set by such earlier works as A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie. His works chronicle man's ambitions and his eventual, inevitable ruin. Williams was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 and 1955. (See also CLC, Vols. 1, 2, 5, 7, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 5-8, rev. ed.)

Whatever your feelings about him, there is no denying that Tennessee Williams is one of America's authentic bards. And when such a person attempts to "tell all," it is perhaps our cultural duty to pay close attention to what he has to say about his life, about the material and spiritual conditions under which his songs of neurotic desperation and misery were written.

The most arresting aspect of [Tennessee...

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