The Rose Tattoo – Tennessee Williams

First edition, stated. Dust jacket unclipped, some chipping at edges, previous tape repairs at top edge and corners, faded. Book is crisp and sturdy, very subtle tanning, red cloth boards are clean with only minimal fading at tail, several shadows of damp stains at text. Dust jacket design by Alvin Lustig. Good jacket, Very Good Minus book.

The Rose Tattoo portrays tenderness and profound human compassion in the telling of Serafina delle Rose, for whom love was stronger than death, set among a colony of Italian American “fisher-folk” in Mississippi. Serafina becomes withdrawn after her husband’s passing, and she expects the same of her daughter.

Williams’s play premiered in Chicago in 1950. He edited it before it premiered on Broadway in 1951 and publication by New Directions one month after its Broadway opening. It won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1951. It was adapted into a film production in 1955, directed by Daniel Mann.

Alvin Lustig (February 8, 1915 – December 5, 1955) was an American graphic designer, designer of typefaces, and book designer. He produced designs for publications by New Directions, beginning with his first dust jacket design for Henry Miller’s Wisdom of the Heart in 1941. He designed the New Classics series for New Directions from 1945 to 1952. Additionally, he designed book covers for Noonday Press (Meridian Books) from 1951 to 1955.