Early Stories by Tennessee Williams

One of the 20th century’s most influential U.S. writers, Tennessee Williams (1911–83) was also the author of a number of short stories, including this previously unpublished collection from the beginning of his career, before he became a celebrated playwright. Set in St. Louis and its environs, these stories contain autobiographical elements, such as the young author’s job in a shoe factory around which he made time to write. In addition to the background from which Williams emerged, they provide perspective on the Midwest of the 1930s during the Depression with its unemployed, marginal working class often living in poverty. As such, the stories reflect the proletarian fiction of that era. Insofar as the stories are about characters living at the same time in the same place, the collection is somewhat reminiscent of James Joyce’s Dubliners and Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. The volume includes notes on the individual stories, a lengthy bibliography, an introduction by the editor, and a closing essay on manifestations of the erotic in Williams’s early stories with consideration of his sexuality.