The World of Tennessee Williams offers a survey of the life and career of one of American's greatest dramatists from birth in 1911 to his death in 1983. Richard Leavitt was in a unique position to create such a volume, since he was a friend of Tennessee's and followed his career close up. Kenneth Holditch, who has undertaken the task of completing the text, was a friend of Leavitt's and knew Tennessee Williams. It has been his desire to carry to fruition the original plan Dick Leavitt conceived in the 1970s and augmented in 1983 when Williams died.