When it opened in Chicago in 1944, <em>The Glass Menagerie</em> marked a turningpoint in American theater and in the life of its then unknown author. TennesseeWilliams's elegiac masterpiece brought a radical new lyricism to Broadway&mdash;andtoday the tragedy, fragility, and tenderness of this &ldquo;memory play&rdquo; endure.<br /><br />In a cramped St. Louis apartment the aging Southern belle Amanda Wingfield, long preoccupied by memories of gentlemen callers and a world that nolonger exists, is energized by the dilemma of how to save what remains of herfamily. Her restless son Tom&mdash;factory worker, aspiring poet, and the narrator ofthe play&mdash;is swept up in Amanda&rsquo;s comic and heartbreaking schemes to findLaura, his agonizingly shy and handicapped sister, a husband. <br /><br />This new edition of <em>The Glass Menagerie</em> comes with an exciting introduction by the playwright Tony Kushner. Williams&rsquo;s classic essay on the effect ofswift and unexpected fame, &ldquo;The Catastrophe of Success,&rdquo; his original production notes, and a new essay on the autobiographical background of the play bythe distinguished Williams scholar Allean Hale are also included.