Photo Flash: James Grissom and Joana Gleason at The Drama Book Shop

The Drama Book Shop welcomed author James Grissom for a discussion and signing of his acclaimed book, Follies Of God: Tennesse Williams and the Women of the Fog. The author sat down with Tony Award-winning actress Joanna Gleason (Into the Woods, Nick & Nora, Sons of the Prophet and more) for a discussion about the book, the legendary playwright and the women who influenced his work to celebrate the book's recent publication in paperback. The Monday, November 7th, 5:30pm event was free to the public. Check out photos from the event below!

An extraordinary book; one that almost magically makes clear how Tennessee Williams wrote; how he came to his visions of Amanda Wingfield, his Blanche DuBois, Stella Kowalski, Alma Winemiller, Lady Torrance, and the other characters of his plays that transformed the American theater of the mid-twentieth century; a book that does, from the inside, the almost impossible revealing the heart and soul of artistic inspiration and the unwitting collaboration between playwright and actress, playwright and director.

At a moment in the life of Tennessee Williams when he felt he had been relegated to a lower artery of the theatrical heart, when critics were proclaiming that his work had been overrated, he summoned to New Orleans a hopeful twenty-year-old writer, James Grissom, who had written an unsolicited letter to the great playwright asking for advice. After a long, intense conversation, Williams sent Grissom on a journey on the playwright's behalf to find out if he, Tennessee Williams, or his work, had mattered to those who had so deeply mattered to him, those who had led him to what he called the blank page, the pale judgment. James Grissom's "Follies of God" is a revelation, a book that moves and inspires and uncannily catches that illusive dreaming nature.

James Grissom studied at Louisiana State University and the University of Pennsylvania. He has written for HBO, Showtime, CBS, and NBC. He lives in New York. Joanna Gleason, an acclaimed actress, has won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her work on stage. She has appeared in Into the Woods, Sons of the Prophet, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Nick & Nora and countless more.

The Drama Book Shop, a Tony Award Honoree for Excellence in Theatre, is currently celebrating its 99th year. The shop is located at 250 West 40th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. For more information on this and other events, please visit www.dramabookshop.com.

Photos by Matt Greenstein