Maria St. Just was Tennessee Williams' "Five o'clock angel" in their correspondence that lasted more than three decades from 1948 till 1982. With these letters, Maria St. Just has compiled and written the book Five o'clock angel. Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just, 1948-1982. This heafty volume of more than 400 pages consists of a cleverly interleaving of letters, diaries and comments. The letters are mostly, but not exclusively selected from the cache of correspondence between Maria St. Just and Tennessee Williams. This material is supplemented with excerpts from Maria St. Just's diaries describing time she spent in the company of the playwright, and in between the letters and diary fragments, she wrote an ongoing commentary, which essentially consists of memoirs, and clarification and elucidation of the letters and diaries. There is a wealth of photos.

Lady Maria St. Just was born Maria Britneva, in Petrograd (USSR) in 1921. The introduction provides a detailed description of her mother and grand-parents, which is in itself a fascinating piece of history. Maria Britneva studied ballet and performed as a child in Balanchine's ballet La Concurrence. However, she decided on a career as an actress in the theatre. Maria Britneva met Tennessee Williams in 1948, at a party given by Sir John Gielgud. She describes Williams as a shy man, wearing two unmatching socks. In fact, in 1948 Tennessee Williams was already a celebrity. Born in 1911, he had remained obscure for many years, but at the age of 37, with recent successes with The Glass Menagerie (1944) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Williams was a respected author.

Perhaps because success came so relatively late in his career, at 37 Williams was still very accessible, and open to make new friends. In fact, his response and subsequent letters from Paris show he was pleasantly surprised or even somewhat enchanted by Maria Britneva. A turbulent friendship ensued.

Particularly the first 100 pages of the book, describing the first decade of their friendship, period between 1948 - 1958, are racy and full of brio. There are wildly humourous anecdotes:

"I am now in Naples, Positano was just a little bit too much. Having completely overwhelmed the goats, the dikes began to turn on the queens and th fur was flying! I took flight with a Dutch baroness who is part Javanese. She could not pay her bill at the Miramare so she gave the padrone a strong-box full of rocks and sea-shells, saying: "These are my jewels, all I have left in the world!". (1950) p. 35-6.

or a little story about Maria Britneva's grandmother:

(...) who was once browsing in a bookshop in Peterburg. The bookseller hovered, not daring to shut up the shop. All the other customers had gone; hours ticked by; still she went on browsing. Eventually, at about eleven o'clock at night, she told the bookseller, 'I really can't decide. Send everything in the shop to my estate.' (p. 70)

Naturally, on all his travels and during parties, Williams met many other iconic figures who became long-time friends. He describes Christopher Isherwood with Don Bachardy in Key West in 1954 as (...) "with the youngest-looking boy I have ever seen outside school. They say he is twenty but he looks so young he has to order a Coca-Cola in bars." (p. 106).

Throughout the 35 years, Maria Britneva appears to have been Williams' close friend with whome he shared anything. They fell out in anger once, but made up. Thus, Maria was a witness to 35 years of Williams life. The books describes Williams' time with his first partner, Frank Merlo, till his death in 1963 (pp. 183 - 185).

There are many literary successes and literary friendships, particularly with Carson McCullers, while many other literary figures make appearances in the letters, such as Gore Vidal, often with nicknames: the "Horse" (Merlo), "Choppers" (McCullers), "Gadge" (Elia Kazan).

The correspondence of the later years misses the enthusiasm of the first 100 pages. It is more business like, describing literary rights, performances and film rights.

Five o'clock angel. Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just, 1948-1982 is a very enjoyable read, particularly the first part of the book, and of great interest to readers in the literary scene of American letters in the 1950s, with interest in the theatre of gay letters in particular. ( )