The Glass Menagerie marked a crucial turning point in American theater, and forever changed the life of its then unknown author. Williams’s elegiac masterpiece brought a radical new lyricism to Broadway — the tragedy, fragility, and tenderness of this “memory play” have made it one of America’s most powerful, timeless, and compelling plays. The introduction by Tony Kushner sparkles with the kind of rich, unique insight that only a fellow playwright could convery.

The “Deluxe Centennial Edition” includes:

• Tony Kushner’s astonishing Introduction

• The pioneering essay, “The Homosexual in Society,” by Tennessee’s friend, Robert Duncan, and poems by Hart Crane, E. E. Cummings, Walt Whitman, and Tennessee Williams, which Kushner discusses as sources of inspiration.

• “The Pretty Trap,” a cheerful one-act run up to The Glass Menaagerie.

• “The Portrait of a Girl in Glass,” Tennessee’s short story variation of the play

• Photographs of great actresses who have played Amanda, and stills from various stage and film incarnations of The Glass Menagerie.

• Williams’s classic essay about fame, “The Catastrophe of Success.”

• The playwright’s original “Production Notes.”

• The 1944 opening night rave reviews from Chicago.

• An essay by distinguished Williams scholar Allean Hale, “Inside The Menagerie,” provides autobiographical particulars about Williams family life in St. Louis.

• A gorgeous new jacket design by Rodrigo Corral