Book Alert / The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams

The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, Vol. II -- 1945-1957, Edited by Albert J. Devlin, Co-Edited by Nancy M. Tischler, New Directions '04, $39.95, 662 pages, ISBN #0-8112-1600-4. General index, index of recipients, b&w images sprinkled through text.

Those of us with literary agents could well feel guilt at our neglect of them after thumbing through this volume of Tennessee Williams's letters, written between the ages of 34 and 46. Of the 350 letters reprinted here, no one received more than Audrey Wood, who represented him for 32 years, and his grandfather, Walter Edwin Dakin, his chief link to his family now that he was estranged from his parents for allowing his schizophrenic sister Rose to be lobotomized.

Audrey Wood had helped put him on the map with the publication of The Glass Menagerie in 1944, and the Tennessee we witness in these early letters reflect the self-consciousness of the newly rich, anxious to befriend those dear to him with his new resources but stumbling a bit in the execution of his generosity.

In 1939, Williams had his first name changed from Thomas to Tennessee, and his grandfather is the only correspondent for whom he signed his letters "Tom." One wishes that the editors had chosen to include notable letters to Williams as well as from him. Williams makes no attempt to conceal his affection for Audrey Wood, whom he addressed in one letter as "Dear Child of God."

Other notables to whom Williams wrote during these years include New York Times theatre reviewer Brooks Atkinson, Actresses Katharine Cornell, Anna Magnani, Jessica Tandy, and Helen Hayes, and director/producer Elia Kazan. His correspondence gives the lie to the notion that gifted playwrights simply lie back and bask in the glory of fame. Dozens of letters to theater reviewers at loads of different papers confirm that any successful playwright must devote himself assiduously to the care and feeding of the media.

The editors are English professors -- Albert J. Devlin at the University of Missouri and Nancy M. Tischler at Penn State.