Read complete books and articles on: The Glass Menagerie

Williams, Tennessee - (Thomas Lanier Williams), 1911–83, American dramatist, b. Columbus, Miss., grad. State Univ. of Iowa, 1938. One of America's foremost playwrights, the author of more than 70 plays, he achieved his first successes with the productions of The Glass Menagerie (1945) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1947; Pulitzer Prize). In these plays, as in many of his later works, Williams explores the intense passions and frustrations of a disturbed and frequently brutal society. Unable to write openly about his homosexuality in the 1950s and 60s, he displaced the pleasure and pain of sexual relations from the autobiographical into nominally heterosexual dramas.

An eloquently symbolic poet of the theater, he is noted for his scenes of high dramatic tension and for brilliant dialogue. He is perhaps most successful in his portraits of the hypersensitive and lonely Southern woman, such as Blanche in Streetcar, clutching at life, particularly at her memories of a grand past that no longer exists. His later plays, which never quite achieve the poignancy of his first two successes, include Summer and Smoke (1948), The Rose Tattoo (1950), Camino Real (1953), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955; Pulitzer), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), Period of Adjustment (1959), Night of the Iguana (1961), The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Any More (1963), The Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968), In the Bar of the Tokyo Hotel (1969), and Small Craft Warnings (1972).

Williams's one-act plays were collected in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (1946) and The American Blues (1948). He also wrote four collections of short fiction: One Arm and Other Stories (1948), Hard Candy (1954), The Knightly Quest (1969), and Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed (1974); a novel, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1950); two volumes of verse, In the Winter of Cities (1956) and Androgyne, Mon Amour (1977); and a number of film scripts, including one based on two of his short plays, Baby Doll (1956).

See his Memoirs (1974); D. Windham, ed., Tennessee Williams's Letters to Donald Windham, 1940–1965 (1976) and A. J. Devlin and N. M. Tischler, ed., The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams (Vol. I, 2000); A. J. Devlin, ed., Conversations with Tennessee Williams (1986); D. Spoto, The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams (1985, repr. 1997), D. Windham, As If: A Personal View of Tennessee Williams (1985), R. Boxill, Tennessee Williams (1987), R. Hayman, Tennessee Williams: Everyone Else Is an Audience (1993), and L. Leverich, Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams (1995); critical studies by S. L. Falk (1962), F. Donahue (1964), E. M. Jackson (1965), I. Rogers (1976), H. Rasky (1986), and R. A. Martin (1997).

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11 of the Best Books and Articles on: The Glass Menagerie

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie (literary criticism) » Read Now
by Harold Bloom. 152 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

-- Presents the most important 20th-century criticism on major works from The Odyssey through modern literature
-- The critical essays reflect a variety of schools of criticism
-- Contains critical biographies, notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index
2.

Preface to Drama: An Introduction to Dramatic Literature and Theater Art ("The Glass Menagerie" begins on p. 569) » Read Now
by Charles W. Cooper. 776 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...Canby 566 VII THE GLASS MENAGERIE--A MEMORY PLAY BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS...Introductory Note to Williams and The Glass Menagerie 569 THE GLASS MENAGERIE by Tennessee Williams...
3.

Student Companion to Tennessee Williams (Chap. 3 "The Glass Menagerie (1945)") » Read Now
by Nancy M. Tischler. 179 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

From his earliest success in 1945 with the poignant The Glass Menagerie, until his final curtain call with the 1979 production of The Two-Character Play, Tennessee Williams never stopped experimenting with theatrical techniques and striving to explain his richly provocative ideas. This new critical...
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From his earliest success in 1945 with the poignant The Glass Menagerie, until his final curtain call with the 1979 production of The Two-Character Play, Tennessee Williams never stopped experimenting with theatrical techniques and striving to explain his richly provocative ideas. This new critical study of Williams traces the shape of the playwright's life and career, both full of wanderings, failures, love, anguish, and unparalleled triumphs. Incorporating much of the new information that is emerging in the recent publication of letters, biographies, and previously unpublished plays, this Student Companion distills a vast body of scholarship to give a fresh and accessible presentation of the key elements of Williams' complicated works. In-depth analysis of 7 of Williams' plays explore the literary styles, themes, and influences Williams drew from poetry, movies, mythology, religion, and personal experiences. This book allows the general reader and theatre enthusiast a glimpse at the shape of his life, his,mind, and his work. Readers will come to appreciate why plays such as A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) have come to be considered American classics.
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4.

Tennessee Williams: A Guide to Research and Performance ("The Glass Menagerie" begins on p. 34) » Read Now
by Philip C. Kolin. 284 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

The plays of Tennessee Williams are some of the greatest triumphs of the American theatre. If Williams is not the most important American playwright, he is surely one of two or three of the most celebrated, rivaled only by Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller. But in a career that spanned almost five...
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The plays of Tennessee Williams are some of the greatest triumphs of the American theatre. If Williams is not the most important American playwright, he is surely one of two or three of the most celebrated, rivaled only by Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller. But in a career that spanned almost five decades, he also produced two collections of poetry, two novels, four collections of stories, and scores of essays. This reference book offers a thorough review of the vast body of research on his works, along with a history of performance. The volume contains chapters devoted to particular works or clusters of works, and each is written by an expert contributor. Each chapter includes a discussion of the biographical context of the work or group of works; a survey of the bibliographic history; a summary of major critical approaches, which looks at themes, characters, symbols, and plots; a consideration of the major critical problems posed by the work; a review of chief productions and film and televisionversions; a concluding overview; and a bibliography of secondary sources.
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5.

The Critical Response to Tennessee Williams ("The Glass Menagerie (1944)" begins on p. 16) » Read Now
by George W. Crandell. 312 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

Tennessee Williams is generally regarded, along with Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, as one of the greatest American dramatists of the 20th century. This reputation rests upon more than 40 years of critical acclaim accrued by his two masterpieces--A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass...
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Tennessee Williams is generally regarded, along with Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, as one of the greatest American dramatists of the 20th century. This reputation rests upon more than 40 years of critical acclaim accrued by his two masterpieces--A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie--and by more than 60 other plays, such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Rose Tattoo, Orpheus Descending, and The Night of the Iguana. Through representative reviews and articles, this reference book traces the critical response to Williams from his earliest works to the present day. The volume concludes with a selected bibliography.
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6.

Tennessee Williams's Tom Wingfield and Georg Kaiser's Cashier: A Contextual Comparison, in Papers on Language & Literature » Read Now
by William Fordyce. 23 pgs.

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...Wingfield in Tennessee Williamss The Glass Menagerie, a defining work of "plastic...his Production Notes to The Glass Menagerie. Williams, like Kaiser, is...
7.

The Absent Father in Modern Drama (Discussion of The Glass Menagerie begins on p. 39) » Read Now
by Paul Rosefeldt. 166 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...I: Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman...in Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie 1945 . Or the character may...through Tennessee...
8.

Tennessee Williams's St. Louis Blues, in The Mississippi Quarterly » Read Now
by Allean Hale. 17 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...is the New Orleans play, The Glass Menagerie belongs wholly to St. Louis...Westminster Place is now called "The Glass Menagerie Apartment." finis is commonly...the...
9.

Family, Drama, and American Dreams (Chap. 5 "Reactions II: Family and Psyche in Tennessee Williams") » Read Now
by Tom Scanlan. 238 pgs.

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...Viking Press. Permission to quote from the plays of Tennessee Williams is acknowledged as follows: From the Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. Copyright 1945 by...
10.

Scenographic Imagination ("The Scenographic Concept on the Stage: The Glass Menagerie" begins on p. 288) » Read Now
by Darwin Reid Payne. 334 pgs.

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...Scenographic Concept on the Stage: The Glass Menagerie 288 Scenography...222. Last moments of The Glass Menagerie 292 223. Actor...227. Floor plan for The Glass Menagerie...
11.

Staging Difference: Cultural Pluralism in American Theatre and Drama ("Fluidity and Differentiation in Three Plays by Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" begins on p. 141) » Read Now
by Marc Maufort. 398 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...Plays by Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat...revitalizing force. He creates an hour-glass model explaining the transfer...