About this item
When Melanie McCabe's father died in 1973, she learned a startling truth about his life before he settled into a quiet suburban existence. Terrence McCabe had been married before; his first wife, Hazel, was Tennessee Williams' childhood sweetheart; and Williams wrote characters based on both of them, and their marriage, into his plays. As an adult, Melanie set off to discover the real story behind her father's former life, enlisting help from librarians, amateur genealogists, and Tennessee Williams' own writings to fill in the blanks. At the center of the investigation is the perplexing death of Hazel, who died at age 38 while living in Mexico City. Was it suicide? Was it an accident? And who was the unknown man with her when she died? Part memoir, part love story, part gripping mystery, His Other Life is moving for what it reveals about the tragedies of falling in love, getting married, and trying to create a life.
About the Author
Melanie McCabe is a high school English and creative writing teacher in Arlington, Virginia. Her latest poetry collection is What The Neighbors Know, by FutureCycle Press. Her first book, History of the Body, was published by David Robert Books in 2012.
Her work has appeared on Poetry Daily, as well as in Best New Poets 2010, The Georgia Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Cincinnati Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, and numerous other journals. Her work has also been included in two Bedford-St. Martin's college textbooks. She was a finalist for the 2012 Shenandoah Graybeal-Gowan Award, and previously, for the Wabash Poetry Prize, the Pablo Neruda Prize, the May Swenson Award, and the Philip Levine Prize.
Find her on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/melaniemccabepoetry
For links to poems and a video of her reading:
http://www.melaniemccabepoet.com/
