Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh (113 page)

, p. 245.

352

“wasn’t really that bad”: Robert Rice, “A Man Named Tennessee,”

, May 4, 1958.

352

“terrible light”:

, May 4, 1958.

353

“Iron Man”: Tennessee Williams, “Iron Man” (unpublished poem), ca. 1935–1939, Harvard.

353

“A psychiatrist once said to me”:

, “The Man in the Overstuffed Chair,” p. xv.

354

“I think it was the constraint of working”: Williams to Lucy Freeman, undated (ca. July 1962), LLC.

354

“My mother would scream”:

, p. 169.

354

“a rather pathetically regular life”:

, p. 202.

354

“Oh, no, I can’t make peace”:

, June 17, 1942, p. 291.

354

“Happily, the Bird’s anarchy”: Vidal, “Tennessee Williams,” p. 54.

354

“WALLACEd: Richard Watts, whom I know”:

, p. 54.

356

“I was bored not working”:

, Dec. 21, 1958.

356

“extraordinary power”: Williams to Elia Kazan, July 5, 1980, Harvard.

356

“much of the beautiful”: As quoted in Geoffrey Galt Harpham,

(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1982), p. 181.

356

“a well-groomed jungle”: LOA2, p. 100.

356

“that string of pearls”: Ibid., p. 138.

357

“I was PROCURING”: Ibid., p. 141.

357

“It wasn’t

”: Ibid., p. 111.

357

“Really I was actually the only one”: Ibid., p. 110.

357

“After the operation”: Ibid., p. 147.

357

“

”: Ibid., p. 127.

357

“Now that it’s over”: Edwina Williams to Williams, Jan. 20, 1943, in Lyle Leverich,

(New York: W. W. Norton, 1995), p. 480.

357

“What kind of operation was it”: Williams to Edwina Williams, Jan. 25, 1943,

, p. 481.

359

“had given up on Rose”: Leverich,

, p. 481.

359

“The psychiatrists convinced Cornelius”:

, p. 85. Dr. Emmett Hoctor, the superintendent of Farmington State Hospital, had suggested the operation, which was carried out by Dr. Paul Schrader with Dr. Hoctor in attendance. “He was perfectly lovely to me and inspired me with confidence that he will do the right thing by her. He is of fine moral & Christian character also a Roman Catholic,” Edwina wrote. (Leverich,

, p. 224.)

359

“only hope”: “She is now in the State Hospital in Farmington. Cornelius had her taken there on Saturday,” Edwina wrote to her parents. “She became violently insane just after you left and they placed her in a room off from the rest and told me they would advise insulin immediately as the only hope for her. . . . They all agree that this is the only hope and that Farmington is the best place, so there was nothing for me to do but consent.” (Leverich,

, p. 223.)

359

“Does no work”: Leverich,

, p. 335.

359

“has been eccentric most of his life”: Ibid., p. 247.

359

“Any of the normal hugging or kissing”: Ibid.

359

“I remember her stalking”: Williams to Oliver Evans, July 1971, Harvard.

360

“Let’s all die together”: Leverich,

, p. 149.

360

“with refugees”: Ibid., p. 199.

360

“Cornelius . . . lost his temper”: Ibid., pp. 199–200.

360

“Rose was like a wild animal”:

, p. 63.

360

“both of her parents had lost their minds”: “Psychiatric Summary”: Farmington State Hospital, Dr. CC Ault, Dec. 16, 1937, LLC.

361

“Valediction”:

, p. 82.

361

“Horrible, Horrible!”:

, Dec. 20, 1939, p. 177.

361

“tragically mistaken”:

, p. 251.

361

“was essentially more psychotic”:

, p. 327.

362

“dearest brother”: Rose Williams to Williams, July 8, 1944, HRC.

362

“Probably the best thing I’ve done”:

, p. 127.

363

“She and Tennessee sang carols”: John Lahr, “The Belle of Bethel,” Talk of the Town,

, Sept. 23, 1996, p. 34.

363

“She moved among her subjects”: Ibid.

363

“the Windsor Wave”: Ibid.

363

“I am the Queen”: Ibid.

363

visited Rose with unusual frequency: Donald Spoto,

(Boston: Little, Brown, 1985), p. 219.

363

“I’ve seen Rose four times”:

, p. 233.

365

“just a body”: Williams to Cheryl Crawford, Oct. 1956,

, p. 634.

365

“Oh, Laura, Laura”: LOA1, p. 465.

365

“Rose in one of her neurotic sprees”:

, Oct. 7, 1936, p. 59.

365

“God forgive me for this!”: Ibid.

365

“We passed each other on the landing”:

, p. 122.

366

“I think of Rose”:

, Oct. 9, 1937, p. 109.

366

“poor mad creature”: Ibid., Dec. 20, 1939, p. 177.

366

“Rose, my dear little sister”: Ibid., July 10, 1939, p. 159.

366

“I seldom think of Rose anymore”: Ibid., Sept. 16, 1939, p. 159.

366

“the most shocking experience”: Ibid., Jan. 14, 1943, p. 343.

366

“my lack of feeling”: Ibid., Mar. 22, 1943, p. 359.

366

“Rose. Her head cut open”: Ibid., Mar. 24, 1943, p. 361.

366

“depend upon a feverish animation”: LOA1, p. 13.

367

“You—you

me. . . . !”: Ibid., p. 79.

367

“It was because”: Ibid., p. 528.

367

“a band of frightfully thin and dark naked children”: LOA2, p. 142.

367

“The madness is still present”: Williams to Paul Bigelow, Apr. 10, 1943,

, p. 362.

367

“what a dark and bewildering thing”: Williams to Donald Windham, Apr. 1943,

, p. 57.

367

his lifetime dedication to memorializing her: Williams based a character on Rose in more than fifteen plays, at least eight poems are dedicated to her, and a dozen plays deal with mental illness and lobotomies. (See

, p. 40.)

368

“best-liked”:

, “Portrait of a Girl in Glass,” p. 114.

368

“the others had now begun to smile”: Ibid., p. 118.

368

“Laura was the first to speak”: Ibid.

368

“I think the petals of her mind”: Ibid., p. 112.

368

“pop out with something”: Ibid., p. 119.

369

“unceremoniously outed”: Tony Kushner, “Introduction: Notes on

,” in Tennessee Williams,

(Centennial Edition) (New York: New Directions, 2011), p. 27.

369

“I suppose this means the end”: Williams to Paul Bowles, Dec. 1957, HRC.

369

:

was produced with

, under the collective title

.

369

“Apparently, judging from some of the reviews”: Katherine Anne Porter to Williams, Jan. 28, 1958, Maryland.

369

“An impressive and genuinely shocking play”: Wolcott Gibbs, “Oddities, Domestic and Imported,”

, Jan. 18, 1958.

369

“An exercise in the necromancy”: Brooks Atkinson, “2 By Williams,”

, Jan. 8, 1958.

369

“I don’t think I’ve ever been quite”: Williams to Brooks Atkinson, Jan. 9, 1958, BRTC.

370

“a big white-paper-wrapped bunch”: LOA2, p. 147.

370

“

”: Ibid., p. 145.

370

“Even though he knew”: Ibid.

370

“emotionally stirred”: Lawrence S. Kubie to Williams, Jan. 13, 1958, Columbia.

370

“Doctor—Cu?—Cu?”: LOA2, p. 102.

370

“Of all the many portrayals”: Lawrence S. Kubie to Williams, Jan. 13, 1958, Columbia.

371

“I am a realist”: Katherine Anne Porter to Williams, Jan. 28, 1958, Maryland.

371

“Life is cannibalistic”: Whitney Bolton, “Williams Talks on Violence,”

, Feb. 1, 1959.

371

“I think we ought at least to consider”: LOA2, p. 148.

371

“I remember a couple of years ago”:

, May 2, 1958.

371

“I’ll tell you a new ‘bit’ ”: Elia Kazan to Williams, undated, WUCA.

372

“ ‘Just this second’ ”: Elia Kazan to Williams, Jan. 10, 1958, WUCA.

372

“Kubie has said for me”: Williams to Elia Kazan, June 4, 1958, WUCA.

372

“passing through purgatory”: Williams to Lady St. Just, Apr. 23, 1958,

, p. 151.

372

“But instead of posting it”: Ibid.

372

“It turned into a contest of wills”: Williams to Elia Kazan, June 27, 1958, WUCA.

373

“He is a strange and interesting phenomenon”: Lawrence Kubie to Lucie Freeman, undated, LLC.

373

“I had to defy my analyst”: Williams to Elia Kazan, June 4, 1958,

, p. 711.

373

“I resented him telling me”: Williams to Audrey Wood, July 9, 1958, ibid., p. 716. In the same letter, he complained, “I feel that he has been stubbornly obtuse about the need to continue my work when there’s nothing to put in its place, and when I feel so strongly that I have so little time left in which to complete it.”

373

“seems to have set the keynote”:

, Aug. 1958, p. 719.

374

“Another day without coffee”: Ibid., July 18, 1958, p. 717. “I am planning to return to the States sooner than I had expected to facilitate this collaboration [on

] and also because I think I must resume my analysis, maybe not with Kubie, maybe with a younger man with fresher ideas or with a woman, more inclined to the school of Jung.” (Williams to Audrey Wood, July 9, 1958, HRC.)

374

“grave error”: Williams to Audrey Wood, July 9, 1958, LLC.

374

“The truth of the play”: Williams to Audrey Wood, June 6, 1958, HRC.

374

“Frank and I never get along”: Williams to Jo Mielziner, Aug. 5, 1958, HRC.

374

“I’m drunk enough to write you”: Williams to Frank Merlo, Spring 1959, Harvard.

375

his unfulfillable emotional demands: “I am too ready, too quick, to condemn a person I love because I can’t believe that the love is returned,” he confessed to Wood. “And [I’m] such a great egotist that no matter how little attention I am able to give to other people, I want a whole lot given me.” (Williams to Audrey Wood, Sept. 27, 1959, HRC.)

375

“outlived legend”: LOA2, p. 230.

376

“2 by 4 situation”: Ibid., p. 417.

376

“gnaws off its own foot”: Ibid., p. 236.

376

“There’s nowhere else to retire to”: Ibid., p. 172.

376

“In a life like mine”: Ibid., p. 182.

376

“monster”: Tennessee Williams, “Anna Magnani: Tigress of the Tiber,”

, Dec. 11, 1955.

377

“I am a monster”: Williams to Elia Kazan, Dec. 23, 1958, WUCA.

377

“I wasn’t always this monster”: LOA2, p. 230.

377

“Kubie said I can’t believe anyone”: Williams to Audrey Wood, July 9, 1958, HRC.

377

“I came to discover”: Williams to Oliver Evans, Nov. 15, 1958, HRC.