From Amazon's site: The definitive biography of America’s greatest playwright told by the longtime drama critic of The New Yorker.
John Lahr has produced a theater biography like no other. Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh gives intimate access to the mind of one of the most brilliant playwrights of his century, whose plays reshaped the American theater and the nation’s sense of itself. This deeply researched biography sheds light on Williams’s warring family, his lobotomized sister, his guilt, his plays, his sexuality and numerous affairs, his misreported death, even the shenanigans surrounding his estate. Here, in the sensational saga of Williams’s rise and fall, Lahr captures not just the man’s tempestuous public persona but also his backstage life, where Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Bette Davis, Maureen Stapleton, Diana Barrymore, Tallulah Bankhead, and Elia Kazan have scintillating walk-on parts. This is biography of the highest order: a book about the major American playwright of his time written by the major American drama critic of his time. 80 photographs.
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>>> TONS OF INTERESTING THINGS:
1. On Valentine's Day, playwright Phil Poulos emailed me from California, asking if I knew of anything remarkable about Margo Jones, a Texas play producer who had been so instrumental in the development of Tennessee Williams' stage popularity, that Mr. Williams said while I worked for him. Phil has completed a play about Margo, THE SUNSHINE EXPRESS (he might want to find a more eye/imagination-catching title -- he sent me the play, but I've not yet had time to read it).
My answer was basically "not really", but we got into an all day LONG emails exchange about a number of topics, and I'd like to distill our conversation into reporting more details about Tennessee Williams -- many of those we discussed I have NOT blogged about before. That has to still wit a bit (I like the typo, but had actually meant to write "wait").
That evening, Phil sent the above link with these words: "Just saw John Lahr's book quietly advertised on Amazon, to be published in September. I loved his book on his father. A friend, Virginia Spenser Carr, was supposed to do a book on TW, but she died a couple of years ago. John's book is supposed to be the sequel to Lyle Leverich's book, isn't it?"
I knew Virginia Carr well, as she began interviewing me in Atlanta in the mid-1980s, but circumstances mysteriously prevented us from ever getting anywhere significant and we lost touch. Also, I had NO IDEA then of the ramifications of many things that had happened.
So last night, I checked Amazon's John Lahr page, and the book is NOT there, although the link to the new book worked. I also checked www.johnlahr.com as well as his agency, Georges Borchardt's website, and it is not yet listed those places either -- so I certainly see what Phil Poulos means about a "quiet" announcement -- there have been no press releases yet, either.
2. The book's description (likely written by Lahr, himself), indicates to ME that he will tell the FACTS of Tennessee Williams' death (whether he draws my conclusions or not), as well as somehow diplomatically also report my and others' reading on what happened to the Estate. BOTH these subjects being political and financial HOT POTATOES, his boldly facing them, now, proves Lahr is ABOVE the attempt of Thomas Elliot Keith to blackmail him on behalf Sewanee -- AND above any influence by the fact that Georges Borchardt ALSO handles half the rights for Sewanee.
Now THAT is a REAL ACCOMPLISHMENT!!!
I can't wait to read the book (and long ago, I gave John permission to use any of MY words from my memoir of working for Mr. Williams, this blog, or our previous communications -- if he is using any of that, he has NOT contacted me for clarity or other thing, and I fully trust him to choose anything from me WITHOUT further discussion).
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I can take Mr. Williams home now, knowing his legacy is in capable hands.
YAY!!!
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