An encounter with Tennessee Williams

During my career as a bookseller, I've met a few authors along the way.

The most interesting and unexpected encounter was with the late playwright Tennessee Williams.

It was in 1980, when he was in Vancouver to oversee or tweak a production of one of his plays. I was at the cash register in the bookstore I managed, and an older man and a younger man came in. The older fellow asked for a couple of copies of Truman Capote's just-published book Music for Chameleons, which was on display in the store's window.

I peered at him, thought I recognized him, so asked if that was the book that was dedicated to him... he replied quietly that it was. I asked him if he would sign the dedication page for me. He graciously agreed, and I believe it might have been because I brought no attention to him as I handled the transaction quickly and discretely.

His memoir Tennessee Williams: MEMOIRS was published in 1976, and I had read it and loved it. But I was not surprised to read, many years later, that he said a lot of it was fiction(!). To the end, he was quite a character.