Not About Nightingales

"I have never written anything since that could compete with its violence and horror"

Never before produced or published, this is an early play by the 27-year-old Tom Williams was rescued from the Williams' archive by Vanessa Redgrave

It was also the first to carry his signature pen-name 'Tennessee'

Written in 1938 and based on an actual newspaper story, the play follows the events of a prison scandal which shocked America when convicts leading a hunger strike were locked in a steam-heated cell and roasted to death

REVIEWS

"Enthralling ... A feverish, full strength compassion for people in cages makes Nightingales fly toward a realm of pain and beauty that is the province of greatness ... The emotions, both savage and painfully delicate, that saturate this work are arguably more rich and varied in tone than those of any American dramatist ... The voices of Williams's entrapped nightingales ... refuse to fade when the play is plunged into its concluding darkness" ~The New York Times

"The best American play so far this season ... It adds to the reputation of one of America's greatest playwrights" ~ The New York Daily News

Used copy in good condition