Title, Contents, Author's Note

CONSUMING BROKEN GLASS:

A MEMOIR OF THE LATER DAYS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

BY

SCOTT KENAN

 For Allean Hale,

Williams scholar, extraordinaire!

All good art is an indiscretion.

Tennessee Williams

Table of Contents

Author’s Note

Prologue

1. Meeting Tennessee

2. Employment

3. To New York

4. A Birthday Party

5. Old Friends

6. Cape May

7. Dinner at Seven-Thirty

8. The Gauntlet and the Honors

9. At Home

10. An Inspiration

11. Meeting Texas Kate

12. Persistence and Pluck

13. Cold Canyons

14. For Comfort

15. Sprucing Up

 16. Christmas and the Real World

17. Edmund Blows In

18. Clearing the Air

19. A New Order

20. Two Movies and a Haircut

21. Au Naturel

22. In the Pursuit of Youth

23. An Uptown Soiree

24. A Public Reading

25. New Orleans

26. The Goodman Stands Firm

27. A Scare, a Dare, and the Preview

28. A House Not Meant to Stand

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Author's Note

While writing Walking on Glass, I relied on notes I had written or taped during and immediately after the time I worked for Mr. Williams, saved memorabilia, and, of course, my memory. Although I read several Williams biographies and memoirs years ago, at the time they were published, I did not want them to color my memory. While writing this book, I did not read or consult any biographies, except to verify a few dates and spellings.

Much of the dialogue in the book is verbatim, especially when I quote Tennessee’s opinions on matters of art, politics, and known people. That said, I should make clear that his opinions changed constantly—often radically—and I do not mean to imply that those expressed here were his final or even predominant opinions. Whether he said things to me in truth or frustration, these are simply the opinions he expressed to me.

            I am not a scholar, and my purpose was not to write a book for scholars. In the hope of giving insight into the later days of Tennessee Williams, the characters he attracted into his life, and the atmosphere of that time, I sought to recreate my experience without varnishing the story. Memory is my primary source, so necessarily my book is highly subjective.

            The names and identities of a few people have been changed.

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