Join Left Bank Books and the Tennessee Williams Festival - St. Louis for a Facebook Live event, "Henry Schvey with Robert Duffy - Blue Song."
Join Left Bank Books and the Tennessee Williams Festival - St. Louis as they welcome Henry I. Schvey, who will discuss his new biography of Tennessee Williams, Blue Song: St. Louis in the Life and Work of Tennessee Williams. Schvey will be in conversation with St. Louis' esteemed former journalist Robert Duffy. The event will take place June 24, 2021, at 7 p.m. and be available on Facebook Live and Left Bank Books' YouTube channel.
About Blue Song: St. Louis in the Life and Work of Tennessee Williams
In 2011, the centennial of Tennessee Williams's birth, events were held around the world honoring America's greatest playwright. There were festivals, conferences, and exhibitions held in places closely associated with Williams's life and career – New Orleans held major celebrations, as did New York, Key West, and Provincetown. But absolutely nothing was done to celebrate Williams's life and extraordinary literary and theatrical career in the place that he lived in longest, and called home longer than any other – St. Louis, Missouri.
The question of this paradox lies at the heart of this book, an attempt not so much to correct the record about Williams's well-chronicled dislike of the city, but rather to reveal how the city was absolutely indispensable to his formation and development both as a person and artist. Unlike the prevailing scholarly narrative that suggests that Williams discovered himself artistically and sexually in the deep South and New Orleans, Blue Song reveals that Williams remained emotionally tethered to St. Louis for a host of reasons for the rest of his life.
read a short review of "Blue Song: St. Louis in the Life and Work of Tennessee Williams"
