Poems

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) is best known as an outstanding playwright; however, poetry holds a significant place in his creative legacy. Readers are offered a bilingual edition, a quite representative poetry collection. This is the first book of poems by Tennessee Williams published in Russia, written by him at different times in his life. Familiarity with his poetry will significantly enrich readers' understanding of the author's work and his complex and contradictory inner world.

There is no doubt that out of the two muses - Melpomene and Euterpe - the latter visited Tennessee Williams earlier, while the former brought him fame and financial success. Indeed, he came to create plays relatively late, having tried his hand in the genres of short stories and essays. As for poems, his first attempts in this field belong to his childhood and teenage years. Later in Williams's work, both muses walked hand in hand, with the poems characterized by a particular confessional nature; they were not intended for commercial success and were written more for himself, like diary entries.
(From the preface by Elena Pecherskaya)