Williams Tennessee

Alvin Lustig Dust Jacket design for New Directions – 50 Postcard style Illustrations.

Voyager hero and favourite graphic designer Alvin Lustig got into bed with super New York publisher of high end literature, New Directions, to design unique dust jacket art for the likes of Tennessee William, Dylan Thomas, Ezra Pound etc.

This boxed set of fifty postcards is a retrospective of that work comprising some of the more unusual designs. Unfortunately the books are getting out of reach for all but the devoted cashed up collector. So why not get this selection as an introduction or reminder of this man’s talent.

Would make a super gift – and get over the – we don’t use postcards any more – they are a memento of normal life as it once was before the whole world spent their whole waking moments tapping away with two fingers on a iphone … uuhhggh.

Lustig beautifully presented and maybe a challenge for some.

$35.00

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Summer of Smoke – Tennessee Williams – 1957

Published by Secker & Warburg as a softcover in 1957 originally completed by Tennessee Williams in 1948. Perfect bound 8-0 pages with wrap-around green paper cover to the blue soft cover binding. Excellent condition bar ownership stamp and personal library reference on half title.

A play in two parts with thirteen scenes. The play was successful after a re-write [published here] in 1952… it again took another form and was re-titled “the Eccentricities of a Nightingale” in 1964.

The entire play is set in Glorious Hill, Mississippi and is set in the early part of the 20th Century. The story centres on the potential romance between Alma Winemiller a highly strung minister’s daughter and John Buchanan a rather wild and undisciplined young doctor.

The “Author’s Production Notes” covering two pages are succinct but very helpful … focussing on the scenes, mood etc they provide a super introduction for those who enjoy the reading of a play of some standard.

Tennessee Williams and the Summer and Smoke

$30.00

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Period of Adjustment – Tennessee Williams – First UK Edition 1960.

A first UK edition published by Secker and Warburg, London in 1960.

Subtitled … High Point over a Cavern. Described as a “Serious Comedy” … and it is … there is a strong message and quite a few laughs.

Octavo, 95 pages all in super condition.

Set on Christmas Eve it’s a tale about two couples who have been married a few years and are facing the tensions that can arise …

Made into a Hollywood Movie in 1962 for which star Jane Fonda was nominated for a Golden Globe.

A good Christmas Eve read … it will not be on the telly … it’s not reality

$35.00

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Garden District – Two Plays .. Something Unspoken and Suddenly Last Summer – Tennessee Williams – First Edition 1959

A first UK edition published by Secker and Warburg, London in 1959.

Octavo, 72 pages, very good condition.

Two plays … a short one Something Unspoken a type often referred to as a curtain-raiser; and the longer Suddenly Last Summer.

Both had just been performed in England at the London Arts Theatre to much acclaim

Entertaining and still challenging from T.W. …

$30.00

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The Knightly Quest (A Novella and Twelve Short Stories) – Tennessee Williams -1968

A first UK edition of this collection published by Secker and Warburg, London in 1968. A novella and twelve short stories. Three of the short stories had appeared in “One Arm” published in 1959 – see our copy.

Octavo, 253 pages, the novella “the Knightly Quest”, a parody of espionage thrillers comprises eighty odd pages. The short stories common with the earlier edition are .. The Poet; Chronicle of a Demise and Desire and the Black Masseur.

The new short stories are … Hard Candy; Rubio y Morena; The mattress by the Tomato Patch; The Vine; The Mysteries of the Joy Rio; Mama’s Old Stucco House; Man Bring This up Road; The Kingdom of Earth and “Grand”. The first tow are variations on the same theme, with the same setting but with very different results … interesting.

His shorter stories and one a little longer

$40.00

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One Arm and Other Stories (A Collection of Eleven Short Stories) – Tennessee Williams – First of Type New Directions – 1959

A first trade edition published by special publisher New Directions of New York in 1959.

Octavo, 211 pages comprising eleven short stories. Dust jacket by the super designer Alvin Lustig although not one he had put a lot of thought into!. One page had thinned through to a hole … looks like a printing flaw. Otherwise a very good copy of a scarce work.

By this time Williams was already a successful dramatist but his short stories had only ever been published in a limited private form.

The stories are – One Arm; The Malediction; The Poet; Chronicle of a Demise; Desire and the Black Masseur; Portrait of a Girl in Glass; The Important Thing; The Angel in the Alcove; The Field of Blue Children; The Night of the Iguana and The Yellow Bird. As you can see some of these short stories are inspiration for his later plays, some are about characters in them and some are completely independent works.

A broad short read introduction to Tennessee Williams. .

$40.00

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Alvin Lustig Dust Jacket design for New Directions – 50 Postcard style Illustrations.

Summer of Smoke – Tennessee Williams – 1957

Period of Adjustment – Tennessee Williams – First UK Edition 1960.

Garden District – Two Plays .. Something Unspoken and Suddenly Last Summer – Tennessee Williams – First Edition 1959

The Knightly Quest (A Novella and Twelve Short Stories) – Tennessee Williams -1968

One Arm and Other Stories (A Collection of Eleven Short Stories) – Tennessee Williams – First of Type New Directions – 1959

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