Tennessee Williams
American Playwright
Style Icons (Male) category pick for the week of 6/22/08
Tennessee Williams, playwright and icon, is possibly one of my most favorite people. His plays: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Glass Menagerie, Night of the Iguana, A Streetcar Named Desire, Suddenly Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth are unforgettable, decadent, and amazing.
Influenced by the sadness in his own life, particularly the lobotimization of his dear sister Rose as a treatment for her schizophrenia, his work is often unsettling and frank, especially for its time. As he said:
"The strongest influences in my life and my work are
always whomever I love. Whomever I love and am with most of the time,
or whomever I remember most vividly. I think that's true of everyone,
don't you?
"
After a youth in Mississippi, he made his home in Provincetown, New Orleans, and Key West. Provincetown and New Orleans both honor his memory every year with a Tennessee Williams Festival, the former of which is having its on September 25th to the 28th.
|
