Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier Williams III , 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 is a play by Tennessee Williams [i] that had its Broadway [i] ...
in 1961 received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards.
Quotations
BRICK: You said it yourself Big Daddy, mendacity is a system we live in.
When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone.
CHRISTOPHER: We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.
The theatre is a place where one has time for the problems of people to whom one would show the door if they came to one's office for a job.
quoted by Kenneth Tynan, "Tennessee Williams," Profiles (1990) first published as a magazine article in February 1956
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Encyclopedia
Thomas Lanier Williams III , 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 is a play by Tennessee Williams [i] that had its Broadway [i] ...
in 1961 received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards. His 1952 play
The Rose Tattoo , 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 that provided inspiration for much of his writings. He was born in Columbus, Mississippi, in the home of his maternal grandfather, the local Episcopal rector. 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. 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 . He wrote
A Streetcar Named Desire 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 their 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, 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 believe he was murdered. Alternately, the police report from his death seems to indicate that drugs were involved; many prescription drugs were found in the room, and the lack of an adequate gag response that would have released the bottle cap from his throat is often due to drug and alcohol influence.
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.
Plays
- Beauty Is the Word
- Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay!
- Candles to the Sun
- The Magic Tower
- Fugitive Kind
- Spring Storm
- Summer at the Lake
- The Palooka
- The Fat Man's Wife
- Not about Nightingales
- Adam and Eve on a Ferry
- Battle of Angels
- The Long Goodbye
- Auto Da Fé
- The Lady of Larkspur Lotion
- At Liberty
- The Pink Room
- The Gentleman Callers
- The Glass Menagerie
- You Touched Me
- Moony's Kid Don't Cry
- This Property is Condemned
- Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton
- Portait of a Madonna
- The Last of My Solid Gold Watches
- Stairs to the Roof
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- Summer and Smoke
- I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix
- The Rose Tattoo
- Camino Real
- Hello from Bertha
- Lord Byron's Love Letter - libretto
- Three Players of a Summer Game
- Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
- The Dark Room
- The Case of the Crushed Petunias
- Baby Doll - original screenplay
- Orpheus Descending
- Suddenly, Last Summer
- A Perfect Anaysis Given by a Parrot
- Garden District
- Something Unspoken
- Sweet Bird of Youth
- The Purification
- And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens
- Period of Adjustment
- The Night of the Iguana is a play by Tennessee Williams [i] that had its Broadway [i] ...
- The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore
- The Eccentricities of a Nightingale
- Grand
- Slapstick Tragedy
- The Mutilated
- Kingdom of Earth / Seven Descents of Myrtle
- Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws
- In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel
- Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis?
- I Can't Imagine Tomorrow
- The Frosted Glass Coffin
- Small Craft Warnings
- Out Cry
- The Two-Character Play
- The Red Devil Battery Sign
- Demolition Downtown
- This Is
- Vieux Carré
- Tiger Tail
- Kirche, Kuche und Kinder
- Creve Coeur
- Lifeboat Drill
- Clothes for a Summer Hotel
- The Chalky White Substance
- This Is Peaceable Kingdom / Good Luck God
- Steps Must be Gentle
- The Notebook of Trigorin
- Something Cloudy, Something Clear
- A House Not Meant to Stand
- The One Exception
Novels
Short stories
-
- Three Players of a Summer Game and Other Stories
-
- One Arm and Other Stories
-
- It Happened the day the Sun Rose, and Other Stories
Poetry
Footnotes
References
- Gross, Robert F., ed. Tennessee Williams: A Casebook. Routledge . ISBN 0-8153-3174-6.
- Leverich, Lyle. Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams. W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition . ISBN 0-393-31663-7.
- Spoto, Donald. The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams. Da Capo Press . ISBN 0-306-80805-6.
- Williams, Tennessee. Memoirs. Doubleday . ISBN 0-385-00573-3.
- Williams, Dakin. His Brother's Keeper: The Life and Murder of Tennessee Williams.
External links
...
.
- on the St. Louis Walk of Fame
