Profile of Tennessee Williams on Famous Like Me

Thomas Lanier Williams (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), better known by the pen name Tennessee Williams, was a noted playwright. The name "Tennessee" was a name he adopted from 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.

Biography

Tennessee Williams's family was a troubled one, and provided inspiration for much of his writings. He was born in Columbus, Mississippi; the family moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1918. His father, Cornelius Williams, was a travelling shoe salesman who grew increasingly abusive as his children grew older. Edwina Williams, Tennessee's mother, was a descendant of genteel southern life, and was somewhat smothering. Dakin Williams, Tennessee's brother, was often favored over Tennessee by their father.

For many years 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 Williams, who was perhaps the greatest influence on him. She was an elegant, slim beauty who was subject to severe nervous attacks and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Mentally ill and emotionally disturbed, she spent most of her adult life in mental hospitals. After various unsuccessful attempts at therapy, 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 Tennessee, who never forgave his 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 modeled 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 his mother. Many of his characters can be 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 but not limited to Suddenly, Last Summer.

In his memoirs, the playwright claims he became sexually active as a teenager; his biographer, Lyle Leverich, maintained this actually occurred later, in his late 20s. His physical and emotional relationship with his secretary, Frank Merlo, lasted from 1947 until Merlo's death from cancer in 1961, and provided stability when Williams produced his most enduring works. Merlo was a balance to many of Williams's depressions, especially the fear that like his sister, Rose, he would become insane. The death of his lover drove Williams into a deep decade-long depression.

Tennessee Williams was the victim of a gay-bashing in January 1979 in Key West, being 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-gay newspaper ad. Some of his literary critics spoke ill of the "excesses" present in his work, but these were, for the most part, merely attacks on Williams' sexuality.

Tennessee Williams died after he choked on a bottle cap at the age of 71. However, some (among them is Dakin Williams, his brother) 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.

He 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. The funds today support a creative writing program.

Plays (chronological order)

• 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 Gentleman Caller (Screenplay) (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)
• The Purification (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)
• Out Cry (1973)
• Small Craft Warnings (1972)
• 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, Kuchen 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
• 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)

Novels

• The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1950)
• Moise and the World of Reason (1975)
• The Bag People

Short Stories

• 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)

Poetry

• In the Winter of Cities: Poems (1956)
• Androgyne, Mon Amour: Poems (1977)

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