Follies of God - 9780307265692

An extraordinary book that masterfully illuminates the dreamlike writing world of Tennessee Williams, revealing the heart and soul of artistic inspiration and the unwitting collaboration between playwright and actor, playwright and director.

At a moment in Tennessee Williams' life when he felt he had been relegated to a "lower artery of the theatrical heart," when critics were proclaiming his work overrated, he summoned to New Orleans a young twenty-year-old hopeful writer, James Grissom, who had written an unsolicited letter to the great playwright asking for advice. After long, intense conversation, Williams sent Grissom on a journey on his behalf to find out if he, Williams, or his work, had ever mattered to those who had so deeply mattered to him, those who had kept him going to face another day, another judgment. Among the more than seventy women and men with whom Grissom talked, giants of the American theater and film: Lillian Gish, (she was "the escort who brought me to Blanche") . . . Maureen Stapleton, Serafina of The Rose Tattoo . . . Jessica Tandy, the original Blanche DuBois on Broadway . . . Eva Le Gallienne ("She was a stone," said Williams, "against which I could rub my talent and feel that it became sharper") . . . Julie Harris . . . Geraldine Page, Alma of Summer and Smoke . . . Elia Kazan, Marlon Brando, John Gielgud . . .