Tennessee Williams (Poets & Playwrights) (Poets & Playwrights)

The best work of Tennessee Williams is both lyrical and brutal. His uncanny insight into individual failing and human frailty allowed him to create characters at once sympathetic and deeply disturbing. In his dramatic worlds, life rarely had happy endings; surviving to fight the next battle was victory enough. His own life mirrored the struggles he depicted in his work. Writing became his outlet and his refuge from bullying schoolmates, an alcoholic father, an overprotective mother, and his emotionally fragile sister, Rose. He wouldn t openly acknowledge his homosexuality, which deeply informed his work, until well into his adult years. As tormented as he was gifted, neither fame nor success would ever completely chase away his personal demons. I think writing is continually a pursuit of a very elusive quarry, and you never quite catch it, he once said. Others would disagree. His willingness to expose, and even celebrate, the darkest corners of the soul infuses Williams s plays with an emotional depth and clarity that continue to keep them relevant and relatable to readers and theatergoers.