Memoirs, Tennessee Williams
Memoirs, Tennessee Williams
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Memoirs

Author: Tennessee Williams

Narrator: P.J. Ochlan

Unabridged: 13 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/21/2019


Synopsis

When Memoirs was first published in 1975, it created quite a bit of turbulence in the media—though long self-identified as a gay man, Williams's candor about his love life, sexual encounters, and drug use was found shocking in and of itself, and such revelations by America's greatest living playwright were called "a raw display of private life" by the New York Times Book Review. As it turns out, Williams's look back at his life is not quite so scandalous as it once seemed; he recalls his childhood in Mississippi and St. Louis, his prolonged struggle as a "starving artist," the "overnight" success of The Glass Menagerie in 1945, the death of his long-time companion Frank Merlo in 1962, and his confinement to a psychiatric ward in 1969 and subsequent recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, all with the same directness, compassion, and insight that epitomize his plays.

And, of course, Memoirs is filled with Williams's amazing friends from the worlds of stage, screen, and literature as he often hilariously, sometimes fondly—sometimes not—remembers them: Laurette Taylor, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, Elia Kazan, Marlon Brando, Vivian Leigh, Carson McCullers, Anna Magnani, Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, and Tallulah Bankhead, to name a few.

Contains mature themes.

About Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) is the acclaimed author of many books of letters, short stories, poems, essays, and a large collection of plays, including The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Camino Real, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, The Night of the Iguana, and The Rose Tattoo.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jonfaith on March 31, 2019

There isn’t much of literary value in this endeavor. Penned in the mid 1970s, Williams appears to offer a hip rationalization of his life and peccadilloes, though little is said about his work. He loves Lawrence, Chekhov and Brecht but does not reflect on them but rather notes several times that Jea......more

Goodreads review by Brian on June 26, 2007

Trashy, tragic sweetness, went down very smoothly but made me a little sad in spots, most likely in a similar way to the cocktail barbituate combos he became famous for downing. The man is endlessly fascinating and, regardless of his addictions - and there were many, was still phenomenally talented.......more

Goodreads review by Joe on May 31, 2007

Williams' Memoirs is a beautiful attempt to capture the complex nature of one's self and one's art. In a stream-of-consciousness/free-associative style Tennessee opens up about his experiences, and focuses on his loves and losses. He is a true connoisseur of written English, and knows exactly when t......more

Goodreads review by od1_40reads on April 14, 2023

“They offered me a $50,000 advance, and I thought I’d be dead by the time it came out”, John Waters quotes Tennessee Williams on writing his Memoirs. A statement which Williams allegedly wrote to ‘bait’ his enemies – i.e. critics of Memoirs on it’s publication. However I think this statement pretty......more

Goodreads review by David on February 02, 2015

I'm surprised I hadn't read these memoirs before now. TW published them 8 years before he left our world (in 1983). In 1980, in the middle of a long blizzard storm and a transit strike in NYC, I managed to see one of the 14 performances of his 'Clothes for a Summer Hotel' on Broadway. Admittedly, I......more