Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh Hardcover – September 22, 2014

“Offers plenty of backstage anecdotes and high private drama…. But Mr. Lahr, ever the critic, keeps the plays themselves front and center…. The book has already won enthusiastic advance notice…along with blurbs from a kick line of A-list ‘theatricals’ including Helen Mirren, John Guare and Tony Kushner.” (Jennifer Schuessler - New York Times)

“Scintillating on the backstage and bedroom dramas and almost intrusively perceptive on the autobiographical nature of Williams’ art.” (Charles McNulty - Los Angeles Times)

“A crucial contribution to the arguments that should always rage around a man who was one of the greatest American playwrights of his tempestuous century.” (Chris Jones - Chicago Tribune)

“This is by far the best book ever written about America's greatest playwright. John Lahr, the longtime drama critic for the New Yorker, knows his way around Broadway better than anyone. He is a witty and elegant stylist, a scrupulous researcher, a passionate yet canny advocate… He brings us as close to Williams as we are ever likely to get.” (J.D. McClatchy - Wall Street Journal)

“Raises the curtain on Tennessee Williams.” (Elissa Schappell - Vanity Fair)

“There is only one word for this biography: superb.” (Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review)

“Brilliant… [Lahr’s] achievement is not likely to be surpassed.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Could this be the best theater book I've ever read? It just might be. Tennessee Williams had two great pieces of luck: Elia Kazan to direct his work and now John Lahr to make thrilling sense of his life.” (John Guare, author of Six Degrees of Separation)

“Splendid beyond words. It would be hard to imagine a more satisfying biography.” (Bill Bryson)

“Swear-to-god, it's the most original, insightful, thrilling biography I've ever read!” (Elizabeth Ashley)

“This is a masterpiece about a genius. Only John Lahr, with his perceptions about the theater, about writers, about poetry, and about people could have written this book. What a marvelous read.” (Helen Mirren)

“Unsurpassable…An eloquent, spellbinding narrative that emerges as an instant classic.” (Ron Chernow, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Washington: A Life)

“It is a MAGNIFICENT work. Mesmerizing, illuminating, and heartbreaking.” (André Gregory)

“Brilliant and seamless. A labor of the profoundest love, and it comes from the heart and mind of one of our greatest theater writers.” (André Bishop, artistic director of Lincoln Center Repertory Theater)

“A splendid book, one of the finest critical biographies extant.” (Robert Brustein)

“There's never been an American critic like John Lahr. His writing exalts, honors, and dignifies the profession and, more importantly, the art.” (Tony Kushner)

“The singular achievement of John Lahr’s magisterial book, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh is that it’s one betwitching writer’s journey into the lives—public and private—of another.” (Jeremy Gerard - Deadline Hollywood)

“Magnificent…one of the best written and most extraordinary biographies I’ve ever read, in any field.” (Mike Fischer - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

“At once sensitive and magisterial, and it fulfills the ultimate test for a literary biography by convincing you that the works cannot be understood without it. Once you have read it, it becomes part of their meaning.” (John Carey - Sunday Times (UK))

“It is a masterpiece on several levels: of synthesis and analysis (an amazing life apprehended afresh, with great learning lightly borne and a strong streak of showbiz savvy; a page-turner that is almost embarrassingly devourable).” (Paul Taylor - The Independent)

“Scintillating on the backstage and bedroom dramas and almost intrusively perceptive on the autobiographical nature of Williams' art.” (Charles McNulty - Chicago Tribune)

John Lahr, the author of eighteen books, was the senior drama critic of The New Yorker for over two decades. He has twice won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism and is the first critic ever to win a Tony Award for coauthoring the 2002 Elaine Stritch at Liberty.