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Five O'Clock Angel: Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just, 1948-1982
Letters written over the course of three decades shed light on Williams' works, his friends and colleagues, and his dependency on alcohol and drugs
- GenresNonfiction
407 pages, Hardcover
First published May 12, 1990
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About the author
Tennessee Williams
754 books3,693 followersThomas Lanier Williams III, better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth.
Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
From Wikipedia
Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 7, 2013
The computer killed the art of letter writing, or I should say the internet did with its remarkable means of communication via email. I'm guilty of it myself these days though I do share a regular email exchange with the person who gave me this book and I print and keep a paper copy of every email from her for this very reason.
Don't believe me? When's the last time you printed a photograph you took with your cell phone? How often do you go back and reread old tweets on Twitter or messages on Facebook? Does your Email "Trash Bin" have more stuff in it than your "Saved" emails? When's the last time you mailed someone a handwritten letter or even a birthday card? Chances are your answers to these questions are very small numbers. No worries. I'm just as guilty as you are.
But from the late 40s till his death in the early 80s, Tennessee Williams exchanged letters with his dear friend Maria St. Just. They met at a party in 1948 and a life-long friendship ensued from there.
This book is a collection almost entirely of his letters to her, with a few of her own letters to him and other commentary in between.
Through his words, we see a young jet setter Williams traveling the country to parties, vacations, and opening nights of his plays. We also meet a drunken, frail, and drugged out Williams completely dependent upon Maria for guidance and companionship. And lastly, we see a sad lonely Williams with surprisingly not much to say.
Some of the highlights are all the other characters in Williams' life who stop by: Gore Vidal, Isherwood and his young lover Don Bachardy, Marlon Brando, Tennessee's sister Rose, Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, and many more.
After Williams' death, Maria became a harsh co-executor of his estate. She published this book in 1990 and died four years later. Though the book lends itself to be a bit one-sided for the most obvious reasons (it is his letters only for the most part), it's a brilliant and honest look into the mind of one of America's all time greatest playwrights, and we have Maria to thank for giving us that look.
As for the rest of us, when alien archaeologists unearth our civilization many years from now, let's hope they can break through the Firewalls on our computers (if they still work) and know how to utilize our USB's. Otherwise, they stand to learn nothing from our words or lack thereof.
Don't believe me? When's the last time you printed a photograph you took with your cell phone? How often do you go back and reread old tweets on Twitter or messages on Facebook? Does your Email "Trash Bin" have more stuff in it than your "Saved" emails? When's the last time you mailed someone a handwritten letter or even a birthday card? Chances are your answers to these questions are very small numbers. No worries. I'm just as guilty as you are.
But from the late 40s till his death in the early 80s, Tennessee Williams exchanged letters with his dear friend Maria St. Just. They met at a party in 1948 and a life-long friendship ensued from there.
This book is a collection almost entirely of his letters to her, with a few of her own letters to him and other commentary in between.
Through his words, we see a young jet setter Williams traveling the country to parties, vacations, and opening nights of his plays. We also meet a drunken, frail, and drugged out Williams completely dependent upon Maria for guidance and companionship. And lastly, we see a sad lonely Williams with surprisingly not much to say.
Some of the highlights are all the other characters in Williams' life who stop by: Gore Vidal, Isherwood and his young lover Don Bachardy, Marlon Brando, Tennessee's sister Rose, Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, and many more.
After Williams' death, Maria became a harsh co-executor of his estate. She published this book in 1990 and died four years later. Though the book lends itself to be a bit one-sided for the most obvious reasons (it is his letters only for the most part), it's a brilliant and honest look into the mind of one of America's all time greatest playwrights, and we have Maria to thank for giving us that look.
As for the rest of us, when alien archaeologists unearth our civilization many years from now, let's hope they can break through the Firewalls on our computers (if they still work) and know how to utilize our USB's. Otherwise, they stand to learn nothing from our words or lack thereof.
July 13, 2014
I think that reading the letters written by Tennessee Williams to her best friend, Maria St Just, is the best way to really know who T.Williams was.
His autobiography is so lame and boring that it's useless to read it.
His letters are true, funny, honest and kind. It is a pity that Tennessee Williams didn't keep the letters written by Maria St Just, but nevertherless, reading his letters is fascinating.
We can see how he loved and trusted her.
He talked about his life, his sister Rose, his companion Franck Merlo (the account of his death is deeply moving), his friends,his works, the stage and film adapations of his plays etc..
The anecdotes written by Maria St Just are sometimes very funny.
My favourite one is when she gave birth to her first daughter. She wanted to named her Tamara. A friend told her that only beautiful girl should go by this name. Is she pretty? And Maria St Just replied "not really" and didn't name her that way. I found this funny and honest.
His autobiography is so lame and boring that it's useless to read it.
His letters are true, funny, honest and kind. It is a pity that Tennessee Williams didn't keep the letters written by Maria St Just, but nevertherless, reading his letters is fascinating.
We can see how he loved and trusted her.
He talked about his life, his sister Rose, his companion Franck Merlo (the account of his death is deeply moving), his friends,his works, the stage and film adapations of his plays etc..
The anecdotes written by Maria St Just are sometimes very funny.
My favourite one is when she gave birth to her first daughter. She wanted to named her Tamara. A friend told her that only beautiful girl should go by this name. Is she pretty? And Maria St Just replied "not really" and didn't name her that way. I found this funny and honest.
June 7, 2010
Maria St. Just, the child of White Russian emigres, was the model for Maggie the Cat, sort of, but she comes to resemble more the character played by Ava Gardner in the movie of Night of the Iguana. Williams's letters to her are pretty wonderful, because he clearly trusted her (I've not read his letters or any biography of him), but Maria's story is rather sad, because she was fatally attracted to rather wispy, languid WASPS (she of course was Orthodox). The first James Laughlin, the heir to Jones & Laughlin Steel who founded New Directions, and was sort of a poetaster (always defended by Robert Fitzgerald as a better poet than he was); for whom Maria more or less gave up her career, and then for the man she did marry, a minor peer called Lord Peter Grenfell St. Just, whom she did marry, have daughters with, but who was too neurasthenic to really separate from his mother. But very sweet letters in here, and a wonderful portrait of a the miser that Laughlin turned out to be, to my amazement: Long afterwards, Laughlin admitted to Maria that he was "greatly disturbed" by this: "I was so bored with seeing J. in the same tie, day in and day out, that I went out shopping [in Florence:] and came back triumphantly with eight silk ties - one for every day of the week and two for Sunday. J. was paralyzed by this extravagance, even though I explained I had bought them with my own money. "My God! What are you going to do with all MY money?" I was genuinely surprised. "Why, have you got any? I'll spend it, of course!"
August 31, 2017
Witty, bitchy, amusing, and touching.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews