Fans of the theater and Tennessee Williams will adore this masterful biography by John Lahr. Drama critic for the New Yorker and author of many works--including a biography of his father, Bert Lahr, called Notes on a Cowardly Lion--Lahr aims to "construct a new map of the man and his work." He sees Williams's plays as an "emotional autobiography," so he seamlessly weaves biographical material into his analyses of each play to show how each has Williams writ large in them.
Thomas Lanier Williams III was born in Mississippi in 1911, adopting his professional name, Tennessee, in 1938. As a young writer, he struggled for success and acceptance. Finally, in 1945, The Glass Menagerie opened on Broadway to rave reviews, winning the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. To Arthur Miller, it augured a "revolution" in theater. Around this time Williams was confronting his homosexuality, always "his defining struggle," the "mad pilgrimage of the flesh."
After the success of A Streetcar Named Desire, which won a Pulitzer Prize, he was on a first-name basis with the world. Lahr's expansive biography is filled with fascinating profiles and anecdotes about key figures in Williams's life: Elia Kazan, Marlon Brando (his acting was the "performing equivalent of jazz"), literary and theatrical agent Audrey Wood, Carson McCullers, Jane Bowles and Gore Vidal. Lahr believes Williams created his memorable characters out of a "sad little desire to be loved." Between success and the flesh, he swung high and low, leaving a "trail of beauty" so we could try to find him. Outstanding. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher