The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

[Cecil Beaton. Tennessee Williams]


The first of only two novels penned by the American playwright Tennessee Williams. The book centres around Mrs. Stone, a famous actress whose star is waning, who finds herself acting out her own personal drama against the backdrop of post-war Rome. Reviews on the jacket blurb compare Williams' novel to Somerset Maugham, Aldous Huxley, Daisy Miller and Death in Venice. Cecil Beaton, provides the illustration for the dust jacket of the British edition, published by John Lehmann. The novel was made into a film in 1961 and again in 2003, starring Vivien Leigh and Helen Mirren respectively in the title role.


Tennessee Williams. With a dust jacket design by Cecil Beaton. John Lehmann. London. 1950. First British edition. Hardback, octavo; green cloth-bound boards, with red and gilt title to spine, dust jacket. 126 pages. English. 205 x 135mm. 0.4kg. . Good, in good dust jacket; slight shelf wear to jacket, some slight creasing to front top and lower edges, light wear to forecorners and base of spine, slight loss to head of spine, not price-clipped; slight fading to cloth at edges, slight loss to cloth at head of spine, no inscriptions.