Tennessee Williams, courtesy of Masters of Photography [1]Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911–February 25, 1983), better known by the pen name Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright and one of the prominent playwrights of the twentieth century. The name "Tennessee" was a name given to him by college friends because of his southern accent and his father's background in Tennessee. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and for Cat On a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. In addition to those two plays, The Glass Menagerie in 1945 and The Night of the Iguana in 1961 received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards. His 1952 play The Rose Tattoo (dedicated to his partner, Frank Merlo), received the Tony Award for best play. Genre critics maintain that Williams writes in the Southern Gothic style. | Tennessee Williams on a Time magazine cover |
Tennessee Williams's family was a troubled one that provided inspiration for much of his writings. He was born in Columbus, Mississippi, and his family moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi, by the time he was three. At seven, Tennessee was diagnosed with diphtheria. For two years he could do almost nothing. His mother wasn't going to allow him to waste his time, so she encouraged him to use his imagination a lot. When he was thirteen, his mother gave him a typewriter.
In 1918, the family moved again to St. Louis, Missouri. His father, Cornelius Williams, was a travelling shoe salesman who became increasingly abusive as his children grew older. His mother, Edwina Williams, was a descendant of genteel southern life, and was somewhat smothering. Dakin Williams, his brother, was often favored over him by their father. In the early 1930s Williams attended the University of Missouri-Columbia where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. It was there that his fraternity brothers dubbed him Tennessee for his rich southern drawl. By 1935, Williams wrote his first publicly performed play, "Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay!" at 1917 Snowden in Memphis, Tennessee. It was first performed in 1935 at 1780 Glenview, also in Memphis.
Williams lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. He first moved there in 1939 to write for the WPA and lived first at 722 Toulouse Street (now a bed and breakfast). He wrote A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) while living at 632 St. Peter Street.
Tennessee was close to his sister, Rose, who had perhaps the greatest influence on him. She was a slim beauty who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and spent most of her adult life in mental hospitals. After various unsuccessful attempts at therapy, she became paranoid. Her parents eventually allowed a prefrontal lobotomy in an effort to treat her. The operation, performed in 1943, in Washington, D.C., went badly, and Rose remained incapacitated for the rest of her life.
Rose's failed lobotomy was a hard blow to Williams, who never forgave her parents for allowing the operation. It may have been one of the factors that drove him to alcoholism. The common "mad heroine" theme that appears in many of his plays may have been influenced by his sister.
Characters in his plays are often seen to be direct representations of his family members. Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie is understood to be modelled on Rose. Some biographers say that the character of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire is based on her as well. The motif of lobotomy also arises in Suddenly, Last Summer. Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie can easily be seen to represent Williams's mother. Many of his characters are considered autobiographical, including Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and Sebastian in Suddenly, Last Summer. Actress Anne Meacham was a close personal friend of Tennessee Williams and played the lead in many of his plays including Suddenly, Last Summer.
In his memoirs, he claims he became sexually active as a teenager. His biographer, Lyle Leverich, maintained this actually occurred later, in his late 20s. His relationship with his secretary, Frank Merlo, lasted from 1947 until Merlo's death from cancer in 1963, and provided stability when Williams produced his most enduring works. Merlo provided balance to many of Williams's frequent bouts with depression[Jeste ND, Palmer BW, Jeste DV. Tennessee Williams. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2004 Jul-Aug;12(4):370-5. PMID: 15249274 [2]], especially the fear that like his sister, Rose, he would go insane. The death of his lover drove Williams into a deep, decade-long episode of depression.
Williams was the victim of a gay-bashing in January 1979 in Key West. He was beaten by five teenage boys, but was not seriously injured. The episode was part of a spate of anti-gay violence that had occurred after a local Baptist minister ran an anti-homosexuality newspaper ad. Some of his literary critics spoke ill of the "excesses" present in his work, but some believe that these were attacks on Williams's sexuality.
Tennessee Williams died at the age of 71 after he choked on a bottle cap. However, some (among them his brother, Dakin) believe he was murdered. Alternately, the police report from his death seems to indicate that drugs were involved, as it states that pills were found under his body.
Williams was interred in the Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri, despite his stated desire to be buried at sea at approximately the same place as the poet Hart Crane, whom he considered one of his most significant influences. He left his literary rights to Sewanee, The University of the South in honor of his grandfather, Walter Dakin, an alumnus of the university located in Sewanee, Tennessee. The funds today support a creative writing program.
In 1989 Williams was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.* Beauty Is the Word (1930)
* Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay! (1935)
* Candles to the Sun (1936)
* The Magic Tower (1936)
* Fugitive Kind (1937)
* Spring Storm (1937)
* Summer at the Lake (1937)
* The Palooka (1937)
* The Fat Man's Wife (1938)
* Not about Nightingales (1938)
* Adam and Eve on a Ferry (1939)
* Battle of Angels (1940)
* The Long Goodbye (1940)
* Auto Da Fé (1941)
* The Lady of Larkspur Lotion (1941)
* At Liberty (1942)
* The Pink Room (1943)
* The Gentleman Callers (1944)
* The Glass Menagerie (1944)
* You Touched Me (1945)
* Moony's Kid Don't Cry (1946)
* This Property is Condemned (1946)
* Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton (1946)
* Portait of a Madonna (1946)
* The Last of My Solid Gold Watches (1947)
* Stairs to the Roof (1947)
* A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
* Summer and Smoke (1948)
* I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix (1951)
* The Rose Tattoo (1951)
* Camino Real (1953)
* Hello from Bertha (1954)
* Lord Byron's Love Letter (1955) - libretto
* Three Players of a Summer Game (1955)
* Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
* The Dark Room (1956)
* The Case of the Crushed Petunias (1956)
* Baby Doll (1956) - original screenplay
* Orpheus Descending (1957)
* Suddenly, Last Summer (1958)
* A Perfect Anaysis Given by a Parrot (1958)
* Garden District (1958)
* Something Unspoken (1958)
* Sweet Bird of Youth (1959)
* The Purification (1959)
* And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens (1959)
* Period of Adjustment (1960)
* The Night of the Iguana (1961)
* The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1963)
* The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (1964)
* Grand (1964)
* Slapstick Tragedy (The Mutilated and The Gnädiges Fräulein) (1966)
* The Mutilated (1967)
* Kingdom of Earth / Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968)
* Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws (1969)
* In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969)
* Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis? (1969)
* I Can't Imagine Tomorrow (1970)
* The Frosted Glass Coffin (1970)
* Small Craft Warnings (1972)
* Out Cry (1973)
* The Two-Character Play (1973)
* The Red Devil Battery Sign (1975)
* Demolition Downtown (1976)
* This Is (An Entertainment) (1976)
* Vieux Carré (1977)
* Tiger Tail (1978)
* Kirche, Kŭche und Kinder (1979)
* Creve Coeur (1979)
* Lifeboat Drill (1979)
* Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980)
* The Chalky White Substance (1980)
* This Is Peaceable Kingdom / Good Luck God (1980)
* Steps Must be Gentle (1980)
* The Notebook of Trigorin (1980)
* Something Cloudy, Something Clear (1981)
* A House Not Meant to Stand (1982)
* The One Exception (1983)* The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1950)
* Moise and the World of Reason (1975)
* The Bag People* Hard Candy: a Book of Stories (1959)
* Three Players of a Summer Game and Other Stories (1960)
* The Knightly Quest: a Novella and Four Short Stories (1966)
* One Arm and Other Stories (1967)
* Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed: a Book of Stories (1974)
* It Happened the day the Sun Rose, and Other Stories (1981)* In the Winter of Cities: Poems (1956)
* Androgyne, Mon Amour: Poems (1977)
*Gross, Robert F., ed. Tennessee Williams: A Casebook. Routledge (2002). ISBN 0815331746.
* Leverich, Lyle. Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams. W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (1997). ISBN 0393316637.
* Spoto, Donald. The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams. Da Capo Press (1997). ISBN 0306808056.
* Williams, Tennessee. Memoirs. Doubleday (1975). ISBN 0385005733.
* Williams, Dakin. His Brother's Keeper: The Life and Murder of Tennessee Williams.* A Streetcar Named Desire: Study Guide
*Biography, summaries, and quotes from important works like Glass Menagerie and Streetcar
*Booksfactory article.
* A photograph of Tennessee Williams by Yousuf Karsh on the website of the National Gallery of Australia.
*Williams' Entry on the St. Louis Walk of Fame
*1985 audio interview with Dotson Raider, friend and biographer of Tennessee Williams. Interview by Don Swaim of CBS Radio - RealAudio
*Tennesse Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival
*Tennessee Williams biography
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