Faculty Book Talk: Henry I. Schvey (New Date)

Join us as Professor Henry I. Schvey (Drama and Comparative Literature) discusses his latest book Blue Song: St. Louis in the Life and Work of Tennessee Williams (University of Missouri Press, 2021).

In 2011, the centennial of Tennessee Williams’s birth, events were held around the world honoring America’s greatest playwright. There were festivals, conferences, and exhibitions held in places closely associated with Williams’s life and career. But absolutely nothing was done to celebrate Williams’s life and extraordinary literary and theatrical career in the place that he lived in longest, and called home longer than any other—St. Louis, Missouri.

The question of this paradox lies at the heart of this book, an attempt not so much to correct the record about Williams’s well-chronicled dislike of the city, but rather to reveal how the city was absolutely indispensable to his formation and development both as a person and artist.

Free and open to all, pre-registration required.

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