Sunday, May 22, 2011

In the Frightened Heart of Me: Tennessee Williams' Last Year

I met Tennessee Williams in February of 1982 and became his friend and traveling companion until he died in February of 1983. During that time I kept a journal of our adventures together and of the relationship that developed between us. For the past three years I have translated that journal into a ten chapter memoir of that experience. Included in the memoir are eight letters he typed, stuffed in an envelope and sent to me, long before email assassinated letter writing. They are a powerful account of his tribulations in themselves, but coupled with my reflections on him, the identity crisis I had that year and our relationship, the memoir illuminates the pain the artist suffered after his best work ended, but the passion to keep writing was still pulsing. Frightened of dying alone, he desperately longed for a companion he could love and trust. He was seventy-two; I was thirty-three. He a world renowned artist. Me a struggling filmmaker. It was the year that re-defined my life.

In this the centennial year of Tennessee Williams' birth, I am in the process of getting the book published to pay homage to the great playwright I admired so much. The purpose of this blog is to build interest in the marketplace to hear my story.