"AN ANGUISHED CRY OF EMPATHY FOR FELLOW SOULS IN CAPTIVITY … A FULL-STRENGTH HEARTBREAKER": FIRST EDITION OF A FORGOTTEN TENNESSEE WILLIAMS PLAY

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Not About Nightingales. (New York): New Directions, (1998). Small octavo, original paper wrappers. $100.

First edition of one of Tennessee Williams' earliest full-length plays, unproduced and unpublished in its own time.

A long-neglected play by Williams, written in 1938 and based on a gruesome true story about four prisoners who were roasted to death while being punished for going on hunger strike. The piece went unproduced in its own time but was rediscovered by Vanessa Redgrave, who starred in the 1998 premiere and wrote the foreword here. The New York Times called the work "an anguished cry of empathy for fellow souls in captivity … a full-strength heartbreaker," and the London Herald said "Tennessee Williams' forgotten play turns out to be an absolute corker… Haunting, searing, unforgettable."

Fine condition..