Within each individual Explanatory Note, a headnote discussing the history of the poem’s publication precedes a list of glosses and comments on particular words and phrases; in most cases the title of the book or periodical in which a poem has previously appeared is given once in full, and then subsequently cited by means of an abbreviation such as initial letters. (The same abbreviated citations are employed in the entry for each poem in the Textual Variants section, below.) Previous collections of Williams’s poetry, and books of general relevance to Williams to which the editors have had frequent occasion to refer in these Explanatory Notes, are listed on the page at left together with their abbreviated titles.
AMA
Androgyne, Mon Amour: Poems by Tennessee Williams (New York: New Directions, 1977).
American Blues
American Blues: Five Short Plays (New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1948).
Five O’Clock Angel
Five O’Clock Angel: Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just 1948-1982, With commentary by Maria St. Just (New York: Knopf, 1990).
FYAP
Five Young American Poets: Third Series, 1944 (Norfolk: New Directions, 1944).
IWC
In the Winter of Cities: Poems by Tennessee Williams, New Directions Paperbook ed. (Norfolk: New Directions, 1964). [Expanded from the first, hardback edition (Norfolk: New Directions, 1956).]
Letters to Donald Windham
Tennessee Williams’ Letters to Donald Windham 1940-1965, Edited and with comments by Donald Windham (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977).
Leverich
Lyle Leverich, Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams (NewYork: Crown, 1995).
Memoirs
Memoirs (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1975).
Selected Letters I
The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, Volume I: 1920-1945, ed. Albert
J. Devlin and Nancy M. Tischler (New York: New Directions, 2000).
Spoto
Donald Spoto, The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1985).
Stories
Collected Stories (New York: New Directions, 1985).
Theatre
The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, 8 Vols. (New York: New Directions, 1971-1992).
Where I Live
Where I Live: Selected Essays, ed. Christine R. Day and Bob Woods (NewYork: New Directions, 1978).