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Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier Williams (March 26, 1911 - February 25, 1983), better known by the pen name Tennessee Williams, was a noted playwright. The nickname "Tennessee" was given to him by schoolmates in St. Louis for his southern accent. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for a Cat on A Hot Tin Roof in 1955 and for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948. Genre critics maintain that Williams writes in the Southern Gothic style. For many years Williams lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana.

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Tennessee Williams's family was a troubled one, and provided inspiration for much of his writings. 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.

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.

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 are autobiographical, including Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and Sebastian in 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 the stability during which 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 teenaged 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. 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. He left his literary rights to The University of the South via a foundation named after his brother.

Contents

Plays (chronological order)

  • Moony's Kid Don't Cry
  • Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay!
  • Candles to the Sun
  • The Magic Tower
  • Fugitive Kind
  • Spring Storm
  • Not about Nightingales
  • Battle of Angels
  • At Liberty
  • The Long Goodbye
  • The Purification
  • The Dark Room
  • Stairs to the Roof
  • The Case of the Crushed Petunias
  • I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix
  • Auto Da Fé
  • The Frosted Glass Coffin
  • Hello from Bertha
  • This Property is Condemned
  • The Lady of Larkspur Lotion
  • You Touched Me
  • The Gentleman Caller (Screenplay)
  • The Glass Menagerie
  • The Long Stay Cut Short / The Unsatisfactory Supper
  • Summer and Smoke
  • A Streetcar Named Desire
  • Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton
  • The Last of My Solid Gold Watches
  • Portait of a Madonna
  • Lord Byron's Love Letter
  • The Strangest Kind of Romance
  • Camino Real
  • A Perfect Anaysis Given by a Parrot
  • The Rose Tattoo
  • Baby Doll
  • Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen
  • Eccentricities of a Nightingale
  • Sweet Bird of Youth
  • Something Unspoken
  • Three Players of a Summer Game
  • Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
  • Orpheus Descending
  • Suddenly, Last Summer
  • Period of Adjustment
  • The Night of the Iguana
  • The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore
  • I Can't Imagine Tomorrow
  • The Gnädiges Fräulein
  • The Mutilated
  • Kingdom of Earth / Seven Descents of Myrtle
  • Confessional
  • The Two-Character Play
  • In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel
  • Demolition Downtown
  • Out Cry
  • Small Craft Warnings
  • Creve Coeur
  • The Red Devil Battery Sign
  • This Is (An Entertainment)
  • Vieux Carré
  • Clothes for a Summer Hotel
  • Tiger Tail
  • This is Peaceable Kingdom/Good Luck God
  • Steps Must be Gentle
  • Lifeboat Drill
  • Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis?
  • A House Not Meant to Stand
  • Now, the cats with Jeweled Claws
  • Something Cloudy, Something Clear
  • The Notebook of Trigorin

Novels

  • The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
  • Moise and the World of Reason
  • The Bag People

Short Stories

  • One Arm and Other Stories
  • Three Players of a Summer Game and Other Stories
  • It Happened the day the Sun Rose, and Other Stories

Poems

References

  • The Kindness of Strangers, Donald Spoto
  • Memoirs, Tennessee Williams
  • Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams, Lyle Leverich
  • His Brother's Keeper: The Life and Murder of Tennessee Williams, Dakin Williams





Last updated: 11-01-2004 14:41:36