Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams -- Volume I of the Tennessee Williams Biography

by Lyle Leverich

Book Overview

Emerging at last from six years of legal entanglements involving the Tennesee Williams estate, this intimate and important portrait of Tennesee Williams, written with all the colorful detail and personal insight of a well-crafted novel, spans the unknown years of the playwright's life, as he struggled to find his voice as an artist, to bring his work to fruition, and to find an audience. Photos.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517702258
• ISBN13: 9780517702253
• Release Date: October 1995
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 644 Pages
• Weight: 2.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.0" x 6.7" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Well Written and Superbly Researched

This was the most interesting biography I have ever read. I found that I was even reading the footnotes and bibliography! The book begins with a delve into Tennessee Williams' genealogy (including a chart, which I referred to frequently while reading the book). The author goes on to describe Tennesee's formative years, home life, and young-adulthood. The book takes the reader up through Tennessee's overwhelming success with "The Glass Menagerie." I found the book (and, therefore, Tennessee Williams) so interesting that I began researching Williams' works and also his favorite writers (Hart Crane, DH Lawrence). I call a biography a complete success that could have such an effect as it has on me. I look forward to the next edition, though I wonder if it will ever be in print.

I Love This Book

This is a wonderfully done book. I feel I've lived in "Tom's" shoes and appreciate who he was and the struggles he faced. It's a loving portrait that doesn't shy away from the honest details of the life of the young Tennessee. I hope the sequel that's to take us from the Glass Menangerie to the end of Tennessee's life comes out soon----I'll be waiting!!!

If you want to know Williams, this book is essential.

Meticulously researched and sensitively written, this book is the definitive biography of Tennessee Williams, even though it only covers the period up to the beginning of his success. I haven't found any others that can rival its quality. The depth and detail are unsurpassed in Leverich's finely crafted portrait, revealing the many facets of one of America's greatest playwrights. As a "theater person," Leverich brings a special authority to his work, infusing it with expert analysis and theatrical history. A really great read!

A sensational biography about a senational writer!

"Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams" is a biographywritten like a novel. Truly, this is the best account of Williams'life, both personal and professional. Leverich captures the true Tom -the man behind the writer, in an objective and sensual way. Frominterviews from friends, professional associates and family, Leverichpaints a vivid picture of Williams and reveals his inner most feelingsfrom personal journal entries. As a poet-playwright, his writings haveestablished an eternal legacy, as a man, Leverich has provided themeans of understanding this legacy.

If you want to know Tom and Tennessee...

... read this book! No other book on the market about the poet-playwright provides such an extensive researched and interpretative view Williams' early life and its reflection in his work. Written with exhaustive and pain-staking detail, it is not devoid of a fluid style that Tennessee and Tom would have both been proud of. This reader/admirer is impatiently awaiting the second volume.