![]() First edition | |
Author | Tennessee Williams |
---|---|
Language | English |
Publisher | New Directions Publishing |
Publication date | 1954 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardback) |
Pages | 220 |
OCLC | 6662774 |
Hard Candy: A Book of Stories is a collection of short stories by American writer Tennessee Williams, which was first published in 1954 by New Directions. [1]
Those stories published originally in magazines before being collected in Hard Candy are indicated. [2]
The period in which Williams wrote the stories for Hard Candy were contemporaneous with the staging of A Streetcar Named Desire (1948) with his emergence as “America’s most important playwright.” [3]
The years 1948-1952 were a “golden age” for Williams, both personally and professionally. [4] Literary critic and biographer Gore Vidal termed 1948 Williams’ “ annus mirabilis" [5]
Literary critic Dennis Vannatta cautions that “although this period produced a bright flowering of his short fiction, not every story written during this time is first-rate.” [6]
In March 1954 Williams noted in a letter that he was "pulling together a short-long play based on the characters in "Three Players." [7] The play was Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
The 1967 paperback edition, dedicated to Jane and Paul Bowles, notes that the title piece, "Hard Candy," is a later version of "The Mysteries of the Joy Rio," yet both stories are included, despite employing the same theme and the same setting, because the accounts are so different. [8]
![]() First edition | |
Author | Tennessee Williams |
---|---|
Language | English |
Publisher | New Directions Publishing |
Publication date | 1954 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardback) |
Pages | 220 |
OCLC | 6662774 |
Hard Candy: A Book of Stories is a collection of short stories by American writer Tennessee Williams, which was first published in 1954 by New Directions. [1]
Those stories published originally in magazines before being collected in Hard Candy are indicated. [2]
The period in which Williams wrote the stories for Hard Candy were contemporaneous with the staging of A Streetcar Named Desire (1948) with his emergence as “America’s most important playwright.” [3]
The years 1948-1952 were a “golden age” for Williams, both personally and professionally. [4] Literary critic and biographer Gore Vidal termed 1948 Williams’ “ annus mirabilis" [5]
Literary critic Dennis Vannatta cautions that “although this period produced a bright flowering of his short fiction, not every story written during this time is first-rate.” [6]
In March 1954 Williams noted in a letter that he was "pulling together a short-long play based on the characters in "Three Players." [7] The play was Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
The 1967 paperback edition, dedicated to Jane and Paul Bowles, notes that the title piece, "Hard Candy," is a later version of "The Mysteries of the Joy Rio," yet both stories are included, despite employing the same theme and the same setting, because the accounts are so different. [8]