TENN AT ONE HUNDRED: American Theatre magazine Loves It

TENN AT ONE HUNDRED: The Reputation of Tennessee Williams, edited by David Kaplan, was reviewed in the September 2011 issue of American Theatre magazine.

In “The Man in Full: Williams’ rich and variegated legacy survives on the page as well as the stage,” which is really more a reflective essay about Tennessee Williams’ work than a book review, reviewer Garrett Eisler examines three books, Tenn at Hundred (Hansen Publishing Group), The Magic Tower and Other One-Act Plays (New Directions) and the Collected Plays of Tennessee Williams (Library of America). The latter two are collections of Tennessee Williams’ original works whereas Tenn at One Hundred is, as Eisler put it, a wonderful companion to them:

…the 18 biographical essays in Tenn at One Hundred make good companion reading by shedding light on some of the more prominent questions about the playwright and his work. These wide-ranging articles by scholars, critics and fellow playwrights manage to be both highly informative and easily accessible to general readers and students.

I cannot help thinking that David Kaplan’s Tenn at One Hundred is to Tennessee Williams’ work as Stuart Gilbert’s book was to James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Although Garrett Eisler mentions the essays by Robert Bray, Barton Palmer, Vincent Brook, Thomas Keith, Claudia Wilsch, Albert Devlin, John Lahr, Dirk Gindt and David Kaplan, he ends his essay by quoting from the Amiri Baraka’s essay, “Tennessee Williams in Never Apolitical,” and pointing out that Tennessee Williams is the playwright championing the oppressed and their struggle for power.

The essay is a poignant reflection on Tennessee Williams and his legacy just as Eisler reflects about the three books reviewed:

This kind of rediscovery and rethinking is essential to the survival of his [Tennessee Williams] dramatic oeuvre into the 21st century and beyond.

TENN AT ONE HUNDRED: THE REPUTATION OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS edited by David Kaplan is available from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and your local bookstore.