Bust of Tennessee Williams at the corner of Euclid and Pershing

A new bust of Tennessee Williams surveys this intersection in the Central West End. Williams never wanted to be buried in St. Louis. In a letter to his brother, he asked to be cremated and that his ashes be scattered in the Atlantic Ocean near to the place where the poet Hart Crane had thrown himself off an ocean liner. That didn't happen and he was buried in Calvary Cemetery. Hopefully he wouldn't mind looking over one of the livelier places in town. Unfortunately if you aren't looking for the bust, you can easily miss it. It's in front of an Antique shop which often has chairs and tables out on the sidewalk, so I had driven past more than once and didn't see it because it blended into the scenery.

I'll give Tennessee the last word with some of his quotes:

"In memory everything seems to happen to music. "--The Glass Menagerie

"Some mystery should be left in the revelation of character in a play, just as a great deal of mystery is always left in the revelation of character in life, even in one's own character to himself."

"Make voyages! - Attempt them! - there's nothing else... "--Camino Real

"All cruel people describe themselves as paragons of frankness."

"Sometimes ­ there's God ­ so quickly!"-Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire

"A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages."
(Even though Angelina Jolie has this tattooed somewhere on her person, the power of his words can't be denied.)