Tennessee Williams

Explore the life of one of the most brilliant dramatists of his time in Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh. This deeply researched biography sheds light on Tennessee Williams's family, guilt, creative triumphs and failures, sexuality, and numerous affairs. John Lahr explores how Williams's relationships informed his work and brought turmoil to his personal life. With vivid cameos of the formative influences in Williams's life, this book transcends the typical biography to become a trenchant exploration of Williams’s plays and the tortured process of bringing them to stage and screen. Lahr captures not just Williams’s tempestuous public persona but also his backstage life, where major players like Marlon Brando and Bette Davis have scintillating walk-on parts. This is a 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.