Customer Reviews (7)

Overloaded
My review refers to the two Ten Williams volumes of the LoA.
I love the LoA. The books give me the supreme pleasure in reading. They are so beautifully printed on optimal paper in an optimal size, that I sometimes read stuff that is not worth reading.
I have read '10' for two reasons: 1. because I had bought theLoA, and 2. because I had read a lot about the 'glorious bird' in Gore Vidal's 2 volume memoirs. And then, of course, I had seen the Glass Menagerie on Stage and the Cat on the Hot Tin Roof in the movies. Can't remember what else I might have seen before I read this. I saw Suddenly Last Summer only after I read it. I never saw A Streetcar or the Iguana. Pity.
Let me say straightforward, that I love half a dozen to maximum 10 of TW's plays. They are pulp material, they are trash, they are melodrama, and they are true, and gripping, and honest, and vulgar...
And they are great.
But the early plays are plain nothing, while the last few ones are abominable.
It is impossible to draw a strict line when he started to write readable stuff and when he declined so badly that he stopped doing that. But for me it is clear: his early attempts are trash, and so are his last.
My conclusion: the LoA would have done better to restrict themselves to one volume and then focus on the main phase.
If they want to re-issue, I can offer advice as to which plays to include and which ones not.

The Lyrical Voice of Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams represented a major advance in American drama as he introduced a lyricism that had previously been missing.Eugene O'Neill helped the American theatre grow up, but Williams was the one who made it sing.

Williams was able to create complex, vibrant plays which gave intense life to all of the contradictions, nastiness, dysfunction and beauty of American life and families.America has never produced a more honest or sincere playwright.His characters are always searching for ways to hang on to their humanity as the forces of repression and authoritarianism threaten to swallow them up or destroy them.

But above all else, Williams' dialogue is superbly, sublimely poetic.For Williams, the drama is in language itself, and no one has ever used words to greater effect than Tennessee Williams.Both Library of America volumes of Williams' plays are essential reading for people interested in theatre, America, and/or the possibilities of hope and grace in turbulent times.

Am I allowed to review a review?
I, for one, worship the pulp Tennesse Williams typed upon, but I think Mark E. Baxter's review below might just give Tenn himself a run for his money when it comes to audaciously witty, ironic, shocking, and ultimately moving writing.At the very least, Williams (a man who was once seen at a production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" cackling "Haha, she's off to the nuthouse now!" as the curtain fell) would have enjoyed this hilariously, astonishingly off-kilter review.Brava, Mark E. Baxter!Well done!

Ho-Hum
Why American critics are so desperate to make Tennessee Williams into the "great" American playwright is beyond me -- perhaps they feel inadequate when compared to the genius that's come out of England and Continental Europe (e.g., Shaw, Shakespeare, Moliere).

The characters are seldom well-developed, and frequently, I found myself not caring what happened to them.Or rather, I hoped that Mr. Williams would kill them all off a little quicker so he could end the wretched work.

One of the greatest
Tennessee Williams is in the top ranks of American playwrights.His works are a MUST for serious students of the American theatre.Moreover, they are wonderful works for actors to read and learn from -- some of the finest characters, most poignant scenes, and brilliant insights on human nature AND theatrical staging that you can find anywhere.Cheerful?No.Uplifting? Usually not.Brilliant, stageworthy and gripping?Always.This collection, both volumes, gives you all the plays, plus some very worthwhile notes and prefaces from Williams himself. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Greatest American playwright of all time.
I love these collections of Williams plays. I have both volumes and they include all his plays. Still small enough to carry around as the pages are very thin but this is not in anyway bothersome. His writing has changed my life. Such compassion and understanding of human need and pain. I never tire of reading his works. Williams writing is a must for anyone, even if you are not in the theatre world. His plays are timeless and genius. He is the such a beautiful, poetic playwright.

Just what he asked for.
This ws purchased as a gift and the recipient was quite pleased.This book did not contain "Night of the Iguana" which was on his list with some other stories, so I purchased it separately.This was just what he wanted, and he is very pleased.

One of the greats
Tennessee Williams is in the top ranks of American playwrights. His works are a MUST for serious students of the American theatre. Moreover, they are wonderful works for actors to read and learn from -- some of the finest characters, most poignant scenes, and brilliant insights on human nature AND theatrical staging that you can find anywhere. Cheerful? No. Uplifting? Usually not. Brilliant, stageworthy and gripping? Always. This collection, both volumes, gives you all the plays, plus some very worthwhile notes and prefaces from Williams himself.

Dragon Country.
"It is only in his work that an artist can find reality and satisfaction, for the actual world is less intense than the world of his invention and consequently his life, without recourse to violent disorder, does not seem very substantial," Tennessee Williams wrote in the 1948 essay "The Catastrophe of Success," eventually added as a preface to the "memory play" that catapulted him to stardom, "The Glass Menagerie" (1945).Prophetic words of a man who drew heavily on his own experience, on life in the economically depressed South, homosexuality, alcoholism, physical and mental infirmity, violence, passion, desire, love and loss, but most of all his profound sense of humanity and his understanding of the drama of everyday life to create Dragon Country, that uninhabitable and yet inhabited world, that land of unendurable but nevertheless endured pain (also the title of a 1970 collection of plays) of unforgettable pieces such as "The Glass Menagerie," "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1947), "Summer and Smoke" (1948), "The Rose Tattoo" (1951), "Camino Real" (1953), "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1955), "Orpheus Descending" (1957), "Suddenly Last Summer" (1958), "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1959), "The Night of the Iguana" (1961) and "Not About Nightingales" (set in 1938 but only brought to the stage 50 years later).

Born Thomas Lanier Williams to an overbearing, hard-drinking, abusive, frequently absent father and a doting mother, Tennessee acquired the sobriquet he later chose as his first name in university, where his Deep South accent made him an easy target for his classmates.A writer since his youth, he saw his first short story ("Isolated") published in a high school newspaper; and after several other prose publications, his second play "Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay!" was produced by a Memphis amateur company in 1935. (His first play, the unstaged "Beauty Is the Word," had been a 1930 University of Missouri drama class assignment which, submitted to the school's Dramatic Arts Club contest, won the first honorable mention ever to be awarded to a freshman).After a stint with his father's shoe company, where he had gone to work at parental insistence, he graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1938.His big breakthrough came with "A Glass Menagerie;" the story of fading Southern belle Amanda Wingfield (who, like many of Williams's most memorable characters, frantically clings to the illusion of a world gone by), her crippled daughter Laura (the owner of the titular glass figurine collection), "gentleman caller" Jim (Laura's suitor), and Amanda's son Tom, Williams's thinly veiled alter ego who, like the playwright, sees his vocation as a poet crushed under his daily job at a shoe factory.Yet, looking back at his struggling life preceding "Glass Menagerie," Williams later came to regard that time as more real than the life made possible by fame and fortune: in fact, "it was the sort of life for which the human organism is created," he wrote in "The Catastrophe of Success."

The present compilation, one of two volumes in the magnificent "Library of America" series, brings together the more significant works of Williams's early years and of his peak as a playwright through 1955, including inter alia his two Pulitzer Prize winners ("A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"), the only recently-rediscovered "Spring Storm" (1938) and "Not About Nightingales," the initial, unsuccessful version of "Orpheus Descending" ("Battle of Angels," 1940), as well as excerpts from the one-act play collection "27 Wagons Full of Cotton" (originally from 1945, augmented and republished 1953), among them the collection's title piece plus "The Lady of Larkspur Lotion," "Something Unspoken," "This Property Is Condemned," and others.The second Library of America volume covers Williams's creative period after 1955.Neither tome is all-inclusive; a fully comprehensive compilation would easily have required three volumes for the plays alone, not to mention his poetry and prose; and a 1955 caesura certainly does make sense.Still: completists will have to look elsewhere in addition.Among the more significant omissions in this first volume are "Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay!" (which I would have liked to see included if only because it was his first-ever staged play) as well as the modestly successful "American Blues" (1939) and the remaining one-act plays from "27 Wagons Full of Cotton." Volume 2 similarly focuses on Williams's more significant later plays; omitting, e.g., "Gnaediges Fraeulein," "In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel," "The Red Devil Battery Sign," "The Notebook of Trigorin" - his adaptation of Anton Chekhov's "Seagull" - and his infamous "Baby Doll" screenplay, as well as its stage adaptation "Tiger Tail."

Although many of Williams's works reached audiences not only on stage but also on the silver screen, beginning in the 1950s he came under increased scrutiny due to his unconventional lifestyle.Even in his plays' most successful screen adaptations, the more controversial elements, such as Brick's unavowed homosexuality in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and the sexual tension between Stanley and Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire," were either muted or censored entirely; and particularly in later years, criticism leveled against his plays was often truly motivated by objections against the man himself. - "The bird that I hope to catch in the net of this play is ... the true quality of experience in a group of people, that cloudy, flickering, evanescent - fiercely charged! - interplay of live human beings in the thundercloud of a common crisis," Williams wrote in a stage direction in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."But while his own life's thunderstorm did eventually prove fatal (he choked to death on a medicine bottle cap in 1983), over the course of his life he revolutionized Southern drama in a way only comparable to Faulkner's impact on literary fiction, and set a shining example for generations of later playwrights.All-encompassing or not: the Library of America's collection of his works is an excellent place to begin a journey of appreciation into his Dragon Country.

Also recommended:
Tennessee Williams: Plays 1957-1980 (Library of America)
Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone)
Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive)
The Rose Tattoo
Suddenly, Last Summer
Baby Doll
This Property Is Condemned
Tennessee Williams' Dragon Country (Broadway Theatre Archive)

Tennesse Williams: Pulitzer Prize Winner
Tennessee Williams is one of my favorite playwrights, and he was one of America's best. I think he was clearly also one of the 20th Century's best. Wonderful poignant tragic storyteller with memorable characters, like the frail southern belle Blanche in his classic play "A Streetcar Named Desire", or Stanley her uncouth brother-in-law who destroys her last shot at happiness. Another great play is "The Glass Menagerie", his first hit, which was an enormous success and catupulted him instantly into the forefront of emerging young playwrights at the time. It's a very entertaining story, very readable, I highly recommend you read it. Another is "The Rose Tattoo"--also see the film of the same name. And Williams' last great play was "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness" ... Read more

Product Description
This book is a richly detailed history of hte politicalevents and personalities that have shaped the Volunteer State.Itexamines the evolution of politics in Tennessee's three geographicaldivisions--East, Middle, and West, in an easily accessible andabsorbing style.The book is arranged chronologically and focuses onTennessee's campaigns and elections, and the people who lived them.It includes detailed discussion on the three presidents Tennessee hasproduced--Andrew Jackson, James Knox Polk, and Andrew Johnson, andstories of legendary figures such as Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, andSgt. Alvin York.It includes over 100 highlighted biographicalsketches and 150 illustrations, lists of Tennessee governors andcongressional delegates, and extensive bibliography and index. ... Read more

Product Description
Often, Nashville is associated primarily with country music; however, Francis Craig and his orchestra were a fundamental part of the thriving Nashville popular music tradition.In this biography, Robert W. Ikard provides an entertaining account of the man who had the first recording hit out of Nashville.In 1947, Craig composed and recorded "Near You," which boosted his fame nationwide."Near You" sat on Billboard's chart longer than any other song in history, and the song helped launch Nashville's recording industry.The book details Francis' beginnings as son of a clergy man, his days at Vanderbilt University during which he wrote the university's original fight song, his glory days as a popular band leader with many years' association at local radio station WSM and his work with well-known musical figures such as Dinah Shore, Snooky Lanson, and Kitty Kallen.The book's price includes a CD of "Near You" and other works as well as collected interviews and co! mmentary.A discography and extensive notes are included in the back of the book. ... Read more

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Publisher: Printed by A.A. StittPublication date: 1855Subjects: LawState librariesHistory / GeneralLanguage Arts ... Read more

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Retaining the highest respect of his units, GeneralJoseph B. Palmer, CSA, was an admirable man whose distinctiveness layin his calm judgement, bravery, and sympathy. Other generals may havereceived higher rank and wider acclaim, but these qualities in Palmerhave made him a biographer’s dream.

   “General Palmer’s life is to the biographer what a sunkentreasure is to the deep sea diver,” author Robert O. Neffsaid. “He was greatly loved by all his troops, and he commandedabout 90 percent of all the Tennessee units which ever served theSouth.”

Tennessee’s Battered Brigadier tells the life story of Palmer, oneof 36 Confederate generals from Tennessee. Recently published byHillsboro Press, the book was previously released in limited numbersby Historic Travellers’ Rest.

   Though Palmer has been praised by many contemporary writers and wasapplauded by writers of his time, his full story had not been tolduntil Neff heard about his courageous life. The general did not keep adiary and, because he was a widower, did not write letters home duringthe war; therefore, Neff’s information is mostly gathered fromnewspapers, contemporary writers, and Palmer’s peers.

   One contemporary testimony reads, “Brave as a soldier, he is yetas gentle as a woman in disposition . . . for a man so gentle, soamiable, and so peaceful in private life, it amazed all his soldiersto see how utterly careless of himself he was in battle.”Tennessee's Battered Brigadier tells the story of General Palmerbefore, during, and in the aftermath of the Civil War. ... Read more

Product Description
Lists Tennessee's libraries with special or unusual collections.Includes activities that teach students about the importance of libraries, the Dewey Decimal System, the Library of Congress, Books-in-Print, contributions of Andrew Carnegie and how and why to use libraries.Listing includes many libraries with special collections about Tennessee.Free teacher's guide. ... Read more

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Provides information about the Tennessee walking horse, the horse breed which is popular for riding and for horse shows, and also is famous for its personality as for its gait. ... Read more

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FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. A collection of stories about teenagers facing complex choices and dealing with difficult situations.Amazon.com Review
"For this one night,
this one room
is no longer the
Dogwood Junior High cafeteria,
not at all.
It's the Stardust Dance.
You're invited."

The eighth-grade Stardust Dance at Dogwood Junior High School is the placewhere dreams, with the help of a few paper moons and a whole lot ofglitter, just might come true. Tawny is hoping that her borrowed shoes withthe red rhinestone bows will somehow turn her into Cinderella. Mary Sarahdares for the first time in her life to tie a colored ribbon in her hairand apply forbidden lipstick. Russ wonders if he'll ever get over his firstlove, the unforgettable Annie P. Peggy Lee is enchanted by the magic of herchildhood beau Tennessee's kisses. And Cub Tanner hides from the wholeaffair on the school roof as he nurses a surprising secret crush.

Kissing Tennessee, Kathi Appelt's first book for older readers, is anice mix of frothiness and substance. Appelt humorously and accuratelydescribes the making and breaking of the eighth-grade heart, while stilltackling weighty issues like date rape, same-sex crushes, and familyviolence. Best of all, the entire short novel can be devoured in one study-hall period. This is a great choice for reluctant readers. (Ages 12 and older)--Jennifer Hubert ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Problems of Eighth-Graders
It is the big dance for the eighth-graders at Dogwood Junior High School.Each student has his or her own story to tell about the event.Some stories deal with the mundane: a boy afraid to talk to the girl he likes, next-door neighbors who have grown apart, opposites attracting, and a student who is ashamed of her poor family.

Other stories deal with more difficult topics: domestic violence, death, homosexuality, and date rape.For this one night, though, maybe these students can put aside their problems and enjoy the magic of the dance.

I liked the way these stories came together.I especially liked when different stories mentioned the same characters.As with all short stories, though, I was left wanting more detail.

short but sweet!
Kissing Tennessee and other short stories form the Stardust Dance by Kathi Appelt is a short book of short stories. The book is about different teenagers and their different problems. One of my favorites was Rachel's Sister. In that story the author wrote about a girl named Mary Sarah. Mary Sarah shared the sad tail of her and her sister Rachel's abusive father and what they had to go through. Another great story is The Notes Between the Notes, where the author wrote of two teenagers who don't have anything in common except one thing; they both secretly have a huge crush on each other. Definitely the coolest one was In These Shoes, in that story you/the reader get to go to the dance with all the other fictional characters you/the reader just reader about! The reason I didn't rate Kissing Tennessee five stars is because it is too short, I think I could have been longer. If you like reading fun books that put you in different perspectives, then definitely read Kissing Tennessee!

kissing tennessee
it was good if you think that chili dogs are good, if not i feel sorry for you

Kissing Tennessee and Other Stories from the Stardust Dance
Kissing Tennessee and Other Stories from the Stardust Dance by Kathi Appelt is a book of short stories about teens and some of the problems they face. These are some of the examples that the kids face in the eight stories. In Rachel's Sister, Mary Sarah struggles against memories of her and her sister escaping their abusive father. In Starbears Cub Tanner deals with his confusion about The Question, which is really many questions all rolled up into one. Why does he have such strong feelings for Trent Davis? In These Shoes, Tawny learns that you don't have to rich and have everything in the world to be happy. I gave this book four stars because these stories were fun to read and they made you think. Since the stories were so short, they made you wonder what would happen next if they kept going. I didn't want some of the stories to end. I think this is a good book for people who want to try reading a different style of writing.I really enjoyed this book and I think that all young readers should try it.

Lyrical!
Kathi Appelt has outdone herself.Long accomplished as a picture book writer (see her new The Alley Cat'sMeow--absolutely wonderful!) she has now distinguished herself as a young adult author.This series of related stories captures the angst that junior high age teens grapple with.Appelt covers it all, from abusive parents to rape to homosexuality.And through it all, she maintains a light touch and lyrical way with words.This is delicious writing!! ... Read more

Product Description
Describes the Tennessee Walking horse, including its history, physical features, and uses today. Includes a photo diagram of the horse. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not Worth The Money
I don't fell that this book is worth the amount of money it is being sold for.It is very elementary and my children loved it.It is a basic book for kids.If you are an adult then you need to look at other books.

Great intro book for kids or adults
I read this book when I first considered buying a gaited horse.I ended up deciding on a Tennessee Walking Horse.This is not the be all tell all book of Walkers, but it is a nice easy read with all the pertinent info on the breed...kind of an overview.It has enough info to let you know if you want to spend the money on a more detailed book, or look into the breed more thoroughly. ... Read more

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THIS EDITION IS INTENDED FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Presents the geography, history, people, places, and economy of Tennessee. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

very disappointed
I ordered this book as a gift for someone who was moving to Tennessee.For the price, based on other products I have ordered thru Amazon, I was expecting this to be a coffee table size book.It was much, much smaller.After reading through the book, I couldn't help but think this would have been more appropiate to be included in children's books rather than travel.I plan on returning this product. ... Read more