The riveting, revelatory, and sole authorized account of the critical first decades of Tennessee Williams's life. Tennessee Williams, author of such indelible masterpieces as The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, is considered by many to be the greatest literary artist of the American theater. Tom is Lyle Leverich's definitive account based on his exclusive access to letters, diaries, unpublished manuscripts, and family documents of Williams's early life and of the events that shaped this most autobiographical of dramatists. It tells the story of the marital traumas of his bullying father and overly protective mother, the mental disorders that institutionalized his beloved sister Rose, his stalled academic career, and his confused sexuality and early successes as a writer; and it leaves Thomas Lanier Williams on the brink of fame with The Glass Menagerie and his transformation into the celebrated persona of "Tennessee."

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 04/17/1995
ISBN: 9780393316636
Pages: 672
Weight: 2.12lbs
Size: 9.28h x 6.06w x 1.26d

Review Citations: New York Times 05/25/1997 pg. 24
Publishers Weekly 03/24/1997