The Journal
Current Issue:
Number 23 — 2024
The Historic New Orleans Collection 2024
softcover • 6" x 9" • 160 pp.
8
color images
ISSN 1097-6035 (Print)
ISBN 978-0-917860-92-8
Available from The Shop at The Collection for $15
See the table of contents.
I went out drinking that night in the company of friends that were mine,
not yours,
and when I returned after midnight, a telephone call let me know
that you had died at eleven.
—from “The Final Day of Your Life,” by Tennessee Williams
Appearing for the first time in print, Tennessee Williams’s moving poem “The Final Day of Your Life” describes the playwright’s last visit with Frank Merlo, his life companion of nearly 15 years. Midcentury discrimination kept their loving, turbulent same-sex relationship out of the public eye, but in private Williams could pen his conflicted grief in straightforward language. Inside the issue, scholars explore a little-known painting by Williams and highlight new biographical material, and a treasure trove of essays on inventive stage productions show the playwright’s work reflecting and shaping cultural contexts on two continents.
Cover image: Frank Merlo and Tennessee Williams in Key West, 1958. Photo by John Vachon for Look magazine. Library of Congress, LC-L9-58-7797-E, no. 12.
Founded by Robert Bray in 1998 and now edited by R. Barton Palmer, the Review remains the only journal dedicated to the work and influence of this preeminent American playwright. To order a copy of the current issue, please visit the shop at The Historic New Orleans Collection.
Archives
Online versions of issues 1 through 17 (1998 through 2018) can be accessed in our archives.
Ordering
If you want a print copy of any of our back issues, many of them are still available to order. Simply fill out the online order form, print it out, and send it in with your payment.
Submissions
We are always accepting submissions for our next issue of the Review. The editors invite academic writing on all aspects of the Williams oeuvre, on his contemporaries, and on issues relevant to his era, his work, and his influence. For details, please see our submission guidelines.
Contributors
See notes on all of our contributing writers as well as links to the essays they've written for the Review.
