Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier Williams was born on March 26, 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi. (In college at the University of Iowa, his classmates called him Tennessee Williams because of his southern personality. It seemed to stick so he later changed his name officially to Tennessee.) He started life off from what some would say were humble beginnings. He grew up in the small town of Columbus until the age of three when he moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi. His early childhood was relatively normal until the age of three when he was diagnosed with a disease that caused his legs to be paralyzed for almost two years. During his time of paralysis, his mother told him that he should read books and make up stories to pass the time since he could not go outside and play like all the other children his age. When he was thirteen, his mother gave him his first typewriter. This is what most likely started his literary career.

Throughout his childhood, Tennessee Williams was not looked very favorably on by his father, Cornelius Williams, a traveling shoe salesman. He always seemed to favor Williams' brother Dakin. This is probably because of the fact that he was always getting sick and was weaker than most boys his age. His father would frequently abuse all of his children though more increasingly as they got older. His father was a very heavy drinker, and a strong gambler. (Williams would also later become a very heavy drinker.) Because of his father's frequent absence from the home, he was forced to spend an ample amount of time with his mother, his sister Rose, and his grandparents.

In 1918, when Williams was seven, the Williams family moved once more. This time they moved to St. Luis, Missouri. While living in St. Luis, he got his first piece of literary material published. He was able to get a short essay entitled, "Can a Good Wife be a Good Sport?" published in Smart Set. He received five dollars for his accomplishment. About a year later, he was able to get a short story called, "The Vengeance of Nitocris" in Weird Tales published. Throughout his teenage years, his mother disapprooved of him playing with other boys. So, consiquently, he was stuck at home with nothing else to do except read and make up stories. Also, many say that the lack of a male figure in his life, and so much time spent with his mother and sister, is why Tennessee Williams turned out to be a homosexual.

In 1929, he went out to find a college. His final decision was to attend The University of Missouri. His father did not approve of his son becoming a author; so, after a year in college, his father made him drop out to work for him as a shoe salesman. While working for his father, he was very unhappy, all that he wanted to do was write. It was his little way of escaping the harsh circumstances of life. He would frequently stay up at night simply to write out his feelings. Because of the lack of sleep from staying up and writing, he developed a seriuos heart condition, and after staying in the hospital for a while, his father finally agreed to let him attend college at the University of Washington. Although some of his papers there were published, he did not win the writing contest and quit to go to the University of Iowa. This is were he received his Bachelors Degree.

About the same time that he graduated, his sister had received a Frontal Lobotomy after being diagnosed with schizophrenia. When this happened, Williams realized that his sister would never be the same again. He also heavily blamed himself for his sister's problems. The Glass Menagerie was partially based on his struggles with his family. For example, Williams, "Tom", is struggling to make ends meat for his mother and sister after his father leaves and never comes back.

One of his biggest dreams was to join the Writers Project of Chicago, but when he applied, was turned down. After this, he decided to move down to New Orleans. Throughout his life, he lived on and off in and around the French Quarter. In 1944,The Glass Menagerie was his first Broadway success. The basic plot is a southern belle mom Amanda Wingfield, whose forceful parenting has driven her shy, timid daughter Laura inward and has made her adventure-hungry son Tom miserable. It somewhat resembles Williams' early life. When he first wrote the play, it was an instant success.

In 1947, he wrote A Streetcar Named Desire. It too was very popular when it first came out. Also in 1948, it won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play basically dramatizes the explosive confrontation between delicate and delusional Blanche Dubois and the down-to-earth Stanley Kowalski. Another one of his most famous plays was The Rose Tattoo. Though it was not as popular as the two previously mentioned plays, it was still well accepted by critics. It is set in a Sicilian Gulf Coast community, and concerns a widow's illusions about her husband and her restoration to the passions of life by another man. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was his treatment of fabrication in a rich Mississippi planter's family. It won both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play. The relationship between the ex-football player Brick and his wife, Maggie, turns on Brick's facing his homosexual attraction to his closest friend.

After a long peak of successful writings and plays, Williams' final major work was A Lovely Sunday for Crève Coeur, written in 1979. As his life began to come to a close, he had still never forgiven his parents for his lost childhood and his sister's surgery. Tennessee Williams died on February 23, 1983 in a room at Elysee Hotel in New York. It is also a curious coincidence that he died in the same hotel that one of his most well-known characters died in. Blanche Dubois fromA Streetcar Named Desire, met her end.

Long after his death Williams will still be remembered for his heart wrenching plays and his numerous short stories.