For the "old crocodile," as Williams called himself late in life, the past was always present, and so it is with his continual shifting and intermingling of times, places, and memories as he weaves this story. When Memoirs was first published in 1975, it created quite a bit of turbulence in the mediathough long self-identified as a gay man, Williams' candor about his love life, sexual encounters, and drug use was found shocking in and of itself, and such revelations by America's greatest living playwright were called "a raw display of private life" by The New York Times Book Review . As it turns out, thirty years later, Williams' look back at his life is not quite so scandalous as it once seemed; he recalls his childhood in Mississippi and St. Louis, his prolonged struggle as a "starving artist," the "overnight" success of The Glass Menagerie in 1945, the death of his long-time companion Frank Merlo in 1962, and his confinement to a psychiatric ward in 1969 and subsequent recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, all with the same directness, compassion, and insight that epitomize his plays.

And, of course, Memoirs is filled with Williams' amazing friends from the worlds of stage, screen, and literature as heoften hilariously, sometimes fondly, sometimes notremembers them: Laurette Taylor, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, Elia Kazan, Marlon Brando, Vivian Leigh, Carson McCullers, Anna Magnani, Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, and Tallulah Bankhead to name a few. And now film director John Waters, well acquainted with shocking the American public, has written an introduction that gives some perspective on the various reactions to Tennessee's Memoirs , while also paying tribute to a fellow artist who inspired many with his integrity and endurance.

田纳西·威廉斯（Tennessee Williams，1911—1983），本名托马斯·拉尼尔·威廉斯三世（Thomas Lanier Williams III），被认为是二十世纪美国*杰出的剧作家之一。他出生于美国中部密西西比州哥伦布市，先后就读于密苏里大学、华盛顿大学圣路易斯分校与爱荷华大学。他一生笔耕不辍，著作颇丰，凭借《欲望号街车》（1947）与《热铁皮屋顶上的猫》（1955）两获普利策奖，1979年被列入美国戏剧名人堂（American Theater Hall of Fame）。

译者简介

冯倩珠，英语文学硕士，从事英语翻译与教学工作多年，译有?我要快乐，不必正常??见信如晤??爱情是一盘自制卡带?等，曾获韩素音青年翻译奖。