Not About Nightingales Author:Tennessee Williams "Not About Nightingales" is a three act play written by Tennessee Williams in 1938. The play itself focuses on a group of inmates who go on a hunger strike in attempt to better their situation. There is also a soft love story, with the characters Eva, the new secretary at the prison, and Jim, a handsome inmate who works for the warden and is try... more »ing to get out on parole. Williams gained inspiration for the play, after reading newspaper accounts of inmates suffocated in a steam room in a Pennsylvania prison. Although the play was originally written in the 1930s, it wasn?t discovered until the late 1990s when British actress, Vanessa Redgrave, made it her personal mission to track it down. Einstein Books' edition of "Not About Nightingales" contains supplementary texts: ? An excerpt from "Spring Storm", Williams' first play that he wrote one year before writing "Not About Nightingales." ? A few selected quotes of Tennessee Williams.« less