Tennessee Williams

Signed first edition of Tennessee Williams’s The Knightly Quest and Other Stories (New Directions, 1966), featuring “Cavalier of Death,” the artwork of Salvador Dali, on the cover. Boldly signed by the author in black on front endpaper. In near mint condition, price-clipped but seemingly unread, with tight binding, clean tight pages, and original dustjacket in archival protective sleeve.

Thomas “Tennessee” Williams (1911-1983) was an American playwright. Along with Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama.

After years of obscurity, he became suddenly famous with The Glass Menagerie (1944), a play that closely reflected his own unhappy family background. This heralded a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and Sweet Bird of Youth (1959). His later work attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences, and alcohol and drug dependence further inhibited his creative output. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century alongside Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.