Copyright © 2000 by The University of the South

Introduction copyright © 2000 by Allean Hale

All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, or television review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that Stairs to the Roof, being fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, the British Commonwealth including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the Copyright Union, is subject to royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved. Particular emphasis is laid on the question of readings, permission for which must be secured from the agent for The University of the South, Casarotto Ramsay & Associates Limited, National House, 60-66 Wardour St., London W1V 4ND, England.

Stairs to the Roof is published by arrangement with The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.

Thanks are due to the Special Collections of the University of California at Los Angeles Library where the original typescript is housed. Thanks also to the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Austin, Texas, for script variants and especially to Erin Wardlow of the Rare Book Department, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, for a print of the cover photograph, and to Kristie French, Special Collections, California State University, Long Beach, California, for supplying copies of programs and reviews of the two Pasadena productions of Stairs to the Roof.

Special thanks are due to Thomas Keith for his invaluable help in preparing the manuscript. For their help with information, Allean Hale is grateful to Albert J. Devlin and Nancy M. Tischler editors of The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, and Margaret Thornton, who is editing Williams’ journals. The Editor and Publisher would also like to thank Richard Freeman Leavitt who provided a print of the frontispiece.

First published as New Directions Paperbook 892 in 2000

eISBN 978-0-8112-2563-2

New Directions books are published for James Laughlin by New Directions Publishing Corporation,

80 Eighth Avenue, New York 10011