This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/26/2022
WILLIAMS, Tennessee (1911–1983). A small archive of correspondence to director Jose Quintero, comprising of: 2 typed letters signed and 2 autograph letters signed by Williams to Quintero that were written during the late 1970s in regard to the collaboration of the Broadway play “Clothes for a Summer Hotel” that was about the dysfunctional marriage between Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald which premiered on 26 March 1980 at the Cort Theatre in New York. Williams became aware of the young director Quintero in April 1952 when he staged a successful revival of "Summer and Smoke" at the Circle in the Square. At that time, Williams declared in a letter to Maria St. Just that "Quintero will be, at last another director that I could work with.” In an intimate autograph letter dated 23 March 1978, Williams expresses admiration for the director by calling him “an artist” and “a gentleman”, asking him to “please always be my friend!” In one ALS, Williams finishes the letter with an “I love you”. In 1961, Quintero directed the film "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" with Vivien Leigh and Warren Beatty. In 1967, Quintero directed Williams’ play "The Seven Descents of Myrtle” at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. And in 1977, Tennessee Williams met with Quintero to plan a production of his "Clothes for a Summer Hotel". In a letter, Williams proposes this collaboration between the two: “let’s get away from the merchants of the theatre and work somewhere together”. In another letter dated 19 April 1979, Williams details his mixed feelings upon first receiving the script speaking to his hesitation about the play calling it “decidedly premature” and that it would be wiser to select a more regional theatre such as the A.C.T. which has better “technical facilities…than most you can get on Broadway”. He is also cautious of having too much publicity too soon as the script is “very experimental…still needing a lot of thought and preparation.” Unfortunately Williams did not take his own advice. The play opened on Broadway to poor reviews and subsequently closed after fourteen performances. The Washington Post wrote that they have never seen anything of Williams with “so little urgency or passion” calling it “deeply, sadly and tiresomely unworthy not only of its author but of its subject matter”. As a result of the play's critical failure, Williams vowed that he would "never open a play in New York again... I can't get good press from the New York Times, and [critics] Harold Clurman, Brendan Gill and Jack Kroll hate me... I put too much of my heart in [my plays] to have them demolished by some querulous old aisle sitters" (People, 18 Aug. 1980).