A Streetcar Named Desire - 1947

SIGNED by Tenessee Williams (no personalization) on the front flyleaf, a highly collectible first edition copy, one of only 5080 copies, of his Pulitzer Prize winning drama of faded, promiscuous Blanche DuBois vs her brutally sexy brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, still celebrated 75 years after its Broadway opening as one of the finest achievements in the American theatre. A highspot of theatre and cinema, Streetcar launched the careers of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden, and solidified the position of Tennessee Williams as one of the most important young playwrights of his generation, as well as that of Elia Kazan as the greatest American stage director of the '40s and '50s. Of his Broadway performance in Streetcar, Brando remarked: "What I remember most about a Streetcar Named Desire was the emotional grind of acting in it six nights and two afternoons a week. Try to imagine what it was like walking on stage at 8:30 every night having to yell, scream, cry, break dishes, kick the furniture, punch the walls and experience the same intense, wrenching emotions night after night, trying each time to evoke in audiences the same emotions I felt. It was exhausting...it was emotionally draining, wearisome, mentally oppressive, and after a few weeks I wanted out of it." Original publisher's pictorial pink paper over boards (a few spots of rubbing at ends, spine sunned); original unclipped dust jacket (spined sunned, discrete expert restoration along edges). FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY WILLIAMS on front free endpaper. No other writings, markings, or pastedowns in the book except for author's signature! The author's first Pulitzer Prize–winning play which Williams himself considered his best play and is one of the most important American plays of the last century (Devlin, Conversations with Tennessee Williams, p. 50).. Crandell A5.1.a. Book #Pv1421. $4888. We specialize in Rare Ayn Rand, history, and science.