Tennessee Williams, Memoirs

Tennessee Williams reads from his book, Memoirs (Doubleday & Co., 1975). He is joined by Charles Ruas and the director of his later plays, Bill Lentch. Within the passages that he reads, he examines his childhood, as well as his thoughts on religion and politics. The initial publishing of his memoir was met with an extreme amount of criticism. While he had lived openly as a gay man and the nature of his drug abuse was public, the candid manner of which he approached these subjects was controversial. Even during this interview, Williams openly discusses his trials with addiction and depression. He also reads from a selection of his own poetry and briefly discusses his career trajectory as a playwright. Lentch's support for the dramatists work is constant. The three of them discuss Williams' vision as a mature playwright and it is generally agreed upon that his later works were written “before their time.”

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