Notebooks Tennessee Williams, Margaret Bradham Thornton

Tennessee Williams's "Notebooks", here published for the first time, presents by turns a passionate, whimsical, movingly lyrical, self-reflective, and completely uninhibited record of the life of this monumental American genius from 1936 to 1981, the year of his death. In these pages, Williams (1911-1981) wrote out his most private thoughts as well as sketches of plays, poems, and accounts of his social, professional, and sexual encounters. The "Notebooks" are the repository of Williams's fears, obsessions, passions, and contradictions, and they form possibly the most spontaneous self-portrait by any writer in American history. Meticulously edited and annotated by Margaret Thornton, the "Notebooks" follow Williams' growth as a writer from his undergraduate days to the publication and production of his most famous plays, from his drug addiction and drunkenness to the heights of his literary accomplishments. At one point, Williams writes, "I feel dull and disinterested in the literary line. Dr. Heller bores me with all his erudite discussion of literature. Writing is just writing! Why all the fuss about it?". This remarkable record of the life of Tennessee Williams is about writing - how his writing came up like a pure, underground stream through the often unhappy chaos of his life to become a memorable and permanent contribution to world literature.

Margaret Bradham Thornton is a writer and independent scholar based in Bedminster, New Jersey.

"A sound and solid record of an artist''s intimate mind and heart--and while personal, the "Notebooks" offer new insight into the cognitive patterns, cultural context, and physical life of one of the twentieth century''s most important writers. I was profoundly moved by this privileged glimpse at Tennessee Williams'' life and mind."--Ron Carlson, Director of Creative Writing, University of California at Irvine
--Ron Carlson