Description:

Williams Tennessee 1912 - 1983 Tennessee Williams pens a reflective and revealing letter!



ALS on "Marriot" hotel card stock, 6" x 4.5" with the autographed letter covering the entire interior of both sides of the card . Dated "3/26/78" and signed by Tennessee Williams as "Love Tenn". ExpectedCenter fold. Near fine.

A rather revealing letter written to Jim post the craze of his playwright years. This letter, written just a year before his death, still has Williams grappling with drugs, alcohol, depression, and his homosexuality. His then lover, Robert was on the verge of "cracking up" and his career as a playwright had been impacted by his excessive use of drugs and alcohol. It has been theorized that his excesses and dependences on alcohol, amphetamines and barbiturates were possibility the devastating effects of his sister Rose's illness with schizophrenia earlier in 1943 requiring her to have a lobotomy which permanently disabled her. Regardless of the cause, this struggle remained with him for his life and is even hypothesized to have contributed to his bizarre death.

In this letter he writes a very personal note about his lover, Robert, who is also surrounded in drug abuse. The two ended their relationship about a year after this letter was written so his references made were quite foreboding. Tennessee pens "Robert appears to be approaching a serious crack-up that will require hospitalization due to drug excesses, etc." Williams met Robert Carroll in the early 1970's and the two had a tumulus relationship. Tennessee has been known to have described Robert, who was a Vietnam veteran, as "You know, he has kept alternating between great sweetness to me - mostly in New York where I have the protection of Billy (Barnes) and others - and down-right beastliness of behavior which makes it all but impossible for me to go out with him in public. He does out of his way to be rude to everyone ‰Û_The trouble is that he plays on my sympathies and on my acute loneliness. You really don't seem to know how awful it is to be alone at my age - and "gay". He makes himself so pathetic at times and I remember his years in Vietnam, his background as the ninth child of a West Virginia coal-miner "‰Û_ The two severed their relationship in late 1979, with Williams further stating "He gets $150 a month to stay away, which is just a fraction of his demands - well-wroth the relative peace on the compound, even the creatures seem relieved"

By the 1970's Williams had many box office failures and both critics and audiences alike failed to appreciate Williams' new style and the approach to theater he developed during the 1970s. Williams said, "I've been working very hard since 1969 to make an artistic comeback...there is no release short of death" He began to find peace and creative expression through his artwork which he enjoyed creating from his home in Key West. His letter has him exuberant about selling one of them when he effervesces‰Û_ "Think you'd love the Keys. I am painting a lot in spare time. Just sold new oil for one grand - we can run little gallery!"

Williams first took up painting in the early 1960s when his career as a playwright ebbed. He often relaxed on the patio of his Key West home and painted. Williams' patio was his preferred art studio. People frequently visited his house on Duncan Street and purchased his artwork before the paint was dry.

While he enjoyed working on the patio, he did enjoy escaping the clamor of Key West by going to Ballast Key, a private island 9 miles off Key West. The island's owner, David Wolkowsky, recalls that Williams would bring a bottle of red wine and his oil paints when he visited. Billie Holiday songs played in the background while Williams captured different images on canvas.

The subject matter for Williams' paintings was somewhat diverse. He portrayed several notable characters from his plays, while also depicting close friends and acquaintances. Other works feature homosexual themes. Williams, an openly gay man, struggled with his sexuality from a young age. The taboo surrounding homosexuality during his lifetime manifested itself in a number of Williams' paintings.

Painting was a passion for him, almost to the point that it became a second profession. Toward the end of his life, Williams gradually gave up writing for painting; a less harsh way to express himself. Critics did not think as much of his painting as his plays, however his artwork remains widely popular among collectors.

A wonderful, very illuminating ALS by an artistically significant playwright, who along with Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller is considered among the three foremost playwrights in 20th-century American drama.

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