On this day in 1947, Marlon Brando’s famous cry of “STELLA!” first booms across a Broadway stage, electrifying the audience at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre during the first-ever performance of Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire. The 23-year-old Brando played the rough, working-class Polish-American Stanley Kowalski, whose violent clash with Blanche DuBois (played on Broadway by Jessica Tandy), a Southern belle with a dark past, is at the center of Williams’ famous drama. Find Stella in the library and on hoopla.

On December 3, 1857,  Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski–later known as Joseph Conrad–is born in Poland. Conrad began writing in the late 1890s. His first novel, Almayer’s Folly, was published in 1895.  His work evolved from hearty sea-adventure tales to sophisticated and pessimistic explorations of morals, personal choices, and character. His best-known works, including Lord Jim, Nostromo, Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent, were published between 1900 and 1911, and brought him financial security. He died in 1924. Find Joseph Conrad at the library, on hoopla and in OverDrive.