Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh (100 page)

“gay, very gay”: Ibid., p. 642.

103

“Did anyone ever slide downhill”: Ibid., p. 618.

103

“widened the latitude”:

, “Rubio y Morena,” p. 265.

103

“sentenced to solitary confinement”: LOA2, p. 875.

103

“Of all the people I have known”: Williams to Pancho Rodriguez, Nov. 1947,

, p. 130.

103

“had grown to love”:

, “Rubio y Morena,” p. 260.

104

“to breathe the fine air”: Ms. “Memoirs,” p. 28.

104

“I have learned how to use”: Williams to Audrey Wood, Apr. 21, 1946,

, p. 46.

104

“When I got home”: Williams to Donald Windham, Apr. 1946,

, p. 188.

104

“I’m sorry I couldn’t talk”: Williams to Pancho Rodriguez, Apr. 1946,

, pp. 48–49.

105

“Jack in Black”: Ms. “Memoirs,” p. 29.

105

“The altitude affected my heart”: Williams to Audrey Wood, May 27, 1946, HRC.

105

“Pancho sat in the hospital with me”: Ms. “Memoirs,” p. 32.

105

“He always had moments of great style”:

, p. 103.

105

“a sensation of death”: Ibid., p. 104.

105

“Claustrophobia, feeling of suffocation”: Williams to Kenneth Tynan, July 26, 1955,

, p. 304.

105

“I’m dying! I’m dying!”: Ms. “Memoirs,” p. 32.

105

“I don’t know why I said it in Spanish”: Williams to Audrey Wood, May 27, 1946, HRC.

105

“a rare intestinal problem”: Ibid.

105

“Well, you’re all right now”: Williams to Kenneth Tynan, July 26, 1955, p. 304.

106

“One of the good sisters of the Holy Cross”: Williams to James Laughlin, July 1947,

, p. 57.

106

“I don’t know what you got”: Williams to Kenneth Tynan, July 26, 1955,

, pp. 305–6.

106

“Since then, and despite”: Williams to James Laughlin, July 1946,

, p. 57.

106

“I am sitting up here smoking”: Williams to Donald Windham, May 1946,

, p. 191.

106

“This was when the desperate time started”: Williams to Kenneth Tynan, July 26, 1955, Ibid., p. 306.

106

“a dying man”: Ms. “Memoirs,” p. 42.

106

“As everyone remarked”: Williams to Margo Jones, Sept. 5, 1946, HRC.

106

“She was a crashing bore”: JLI with Gore Vidal, 2000, JLC.

106

“The minute I met her”: Williams to James Laughlin, July 1946,

, p. 58.

107

“Those who find it a little harder to live”: From “Love and the Rind of Time,” the lines continues: “As struggling gene in oceanic plant / Predestine voluntary cells that give / The evolutionary turn to fish, then beast . . . ” Carson McCullers,

, ed. Margarita G. Smith (London: Penguin, 1975), pp. 290–91

107

“I feel that once”: Carson McCullers to Williams, May 11, 1948, Columbia.

107

“the last good year”:

, p. 199.

107

his first sighting of McCullers: Ibid.

107

“Are you Tennessee or Pancho?”: Virginia Spencer Carr

(New York: Doubleday, 1975)

p. 272.

107

“For some reason Pancho”:

, p. 107.

107

“by no means convinced of this”: Ibid.

107

“spuds Carson”: Ibid., p. 275.

108

“Carson is the only person”:

, p. 200.

108

“I feel you are a true collaborator”: Carson McCullers to Williams, May 11, 1948, Columbia.

109

“Pancho was subdued for a while”: Ms. “Memoirs,” p. 37.

109

“My friend Pancho has been cooking”: Williams to Audrey Wood, Sept. 29, 1946, HRC.

109

“As you ought to know”: Williams to Pancho Rodriguez, July 1946,

, p. 61.

110

“When Tennessee would mention”: LLI with Pancho Rodriguez, 1983, LLC.

110

“a violent dislike”: Paul Bigelow to Jordan Massie, Oct. 16, 1946, LLC.

110

“the Mexican problem”: Williams to Margo Jones, Oct. 1947,

, p. 129. “The Mexican problem returned to Manhattan a couple of days ago, quite unexpectedly, and is now sharing the one-room apartment with me.

he will look for a job. (Always Manana).”

110

“Don’t, for God’s sake”: Carson McCullers to Williams, undated, Columbia.

110

“Carson says that Ten’s Mexican”: Paul Bigelow to Jordan Massie, Oct. 16, 1946, LLC.

110

“I had peeled down”:

, p. 142.

110

“Dakin stayed up all night”: LLI with Pancho Rodriguez, 1983, LLC.

110

“an asset to you socially”: Dakin Williams to Williams, Mar. 8, 1947, HRC.

110

“How can you do this to me”:

, p. 142.

111

“had the predictable effect”: Ibid.

111

“No amount of reassurance”: Paul Bigelow to Jordan Massie, Sept. 20, 1946, LLC. “I refused to go, of course, and gave Liebling some stern instructions about not ever mentioning any of this, even obliquely, to Tenn. Since to do so would mean that Audrey would no longer be Tenn’s agent—Pancho would see to that, even if Tenn did not get sufficiently offended—and that is unfair to Audrey’s long and unselfish interest in Tenn’s work.”

111

“She resented me”: LLI with Pancho Rodriguez, 1983, LLC.

111

outraged her: Paul Bigelow to Jordan Massie, Oct. 30, 1946, LLC. “I don’t blame Audrey for having felt deeply offended when Tenn brought Pancho to all meetings with her, turned to him for opinion and consultation on points that concerned only Audrey as his representative, and particularly by the extremely patronizing tone Pancho assumed toward her, including a reference to the delay in bringing the elaborate moving picture arrangements to a conclusion.”

111

“Audrey, what happened to the money”: LLI with Pancho Rodriguez, 1983, LLC.

111

“Audrey wanted to ask my advice”: Paul Bigelow to Jordan Massie, Sept. 29, 1946, LLC.

111

“A deal has been completed”: Tennessee Williams/Pancho Rodriguez record, BRTC.

112

“It was an error”: Paul Bigelow to Jordan Massie, Oct. 30, 1946, LLC. In the same letter, Bigelow writes, “I am horrified that such tales are circulating about in the circles where his career must be, for the theatre has always been curiously prudish and like many a slut is more cautious of scandal than the respectable. And as for Hollywood, there is no more certain end to a career. I simply don’t believe there have been attacks upon Tenn’s life.”

112

“I was jealous of all of them”: LLI with Pancho Rodriguez, 1983, LLC.

112

detail of passion in

: Stella: “No, it isn’t all right for anybody to make such a terrible row, but—people do sometimes. Stanley’s always smashed things. Why, on our wedding night—soon as we came in here—he snatched off one of my slippers and rushed about the place smashing the light bulbs with it. . . . He smashed all the light-bulbs with the heel of my shoe. . . . I was–sort of—thrilled by it.” (LOA1, p. 504.)

112

“You take your friends out”: LLI with Pancho Rodriguez, 1983, LLC.

113

“We’re the sugar daddies!”: Windham,

, p. 81.

113

“Tenn . . . disappeared”: Ibid.

113

“You ought to see your room”: Ibid.

113

“A portable typewriter”: Williams to Donald Windham, June 6, 1947,

, p. 200.

113

“on the other side of a center”:

, “Rubio y Morena,” p. 263.

114

quiet days to write: In the manuscript of “Memoirs” (p. 42), Williams wrote, “I would work from early morning to early afternoon, and then, spent from the rigors of creation, I would go around the corner to a bar called Victor’s and revive myself with a marvelous drink called a brandy Alexander which was a specialty of the bar. I would always play the Ink Spots rendition of ‘If I Didn’t Care’ on the juke box. Then I’d eat a sandwich and then I’d go to the Athletic Club on North Rampart Street.”

114

“the always turbulent return of Pancho”: Ms. “Memoirs,” p. 42.

114

“Situation of my psyche”:

, Nov. 15, 1946, p. 447.

114

“The nightingales can’t sing anymore”: Ibid., Dec. 16, 1946, p. 451.

114

“Nausea persists”: Ibid., Dec. 19, 1946, p. 453.

114

“Undoubtedly a lot of my symptoms”: Williams to Audrey Wood, Dec. 3, 1946, HRC.

114

“

STILL DISSATISFIED

”: Audrey Wood to Williams, Nov. 18, 1948, HRC.

114

“I agree with Guthrie”: Ibid.

115

“Still here, still working”:

, Dec. 1, 1946, p. 449.

115

“He kept yawning as I read”: Ms. “Memoirs,” p. 41.

115

“Maurice’s negative reaction”:

, Dec. 16, 1946, p. 451.

115

Jones liked: Ms. “Memoirs,” p. 43. “Margo Jones and her friend Joanna Albus arrived from Dallas and I read the first draft of

aloud to them. I think they were shocked by it. So was I. Blanche seemed too far out. You might say out of sight.” (

, p. 111.)

115

“Quarreled with Pancho”:

, Dec. 19, 1946, p. 453.

115

“feeling pretty desolate”: Ibid.

115

“with newspaper and Crane and Hemingway”: Ibid.

115

“Somehow or other”: Williams to Audrey Wood, Jan. 9, 1947,

, p. 83.

115

“I haven’t caught sight”:

, Dec. 16, 1946, p. 451. The “pipe dream” is a reference to

.

116

“Pancho is home with me”:

, Dec. 24, 1946, p. 455.

116

“I . . . find it surprisingly close”: Ibid.

116

“rather harsh, violent”: Williams to Audrey Wood, Jan. 9, 1947,

, p. 83.

116

“desultorily”:

, Jan. 2, 1947, p. 457.

116

“She is probably disgusted”: Ibid.

116

“this huge, dreadful game”: Victor Campbell Collection, Oct. 2, 1946, THNOC.

116

“Thinking of driving down”:

, Jan. 2, 1947, p. 457.

116

“Grandfather was a wonderful”:

, p. 111.

116

“over a clean sweep of the sea”: Williams to Donald Windham, Jan. 28, 1947,

, p. 193.

116

“You cannot imagine”: Williams to Pancho Rodriguez, ca. Jan. 31, 1947,

, p. 85.

117

“By the calendar”: Williams to Rev. Walter Dakin, Oct. 10, 1946, ibid., pp. 71–72.

117

“You are one of the youngest people”: Ibid. The other is “Grand,” Dakin’s wife; see Williams’s story “Grand.”

118

“Just being with him”:

, p. 111.

118

“I think the change was good”: Williams to Pancho Rodriguez, ca. Jan. 31, 1947,

, p. 85.

118

“It went like a house on fire”:

, p. 111.

118

first-draft scenes of “The Poker Night”: Under the title page, Williams wrote, “With careful editing, I think a reasonably complete play script could be made out of these rough scenes: that is, if I am unable to do this myself.” Tennessee Williams, “The Poker Night” (unpublished), HRC.

118

“loved me with everything”: Ibid.

118

“an awful city wilderness”: Ibid.

118

“a different species”: Ibid.

118

changed to “Stanley”: In the original manuscript, Williams wrote at the top of the script, “Typist—change name ‘Ralph’ to ‘Stanley’ when you find it in script.” Williams, “Poker Night,” HRC.

119

“the soft people”: LOA1, p. 515.

119