Author Biography

Tennessee Williams, whose real name is Thomas Lanier Williams, was born in Columbus, Mississippi on March 26, 1911. He had two other siblings and parents, Cornelius Coffin, daughter of a minister, and Edwina Dakin Williams, a shoe salesman, who were often in fights. Williams’ first writing success came at the age 16 with his essay, “Can a Good Wife Be a Good Sport?” which won him third prize and five dollars.

He began college at the University of Missouri in 1929 during the Great Depression. There, he saw a production of “Ghosts” and was inspired to become a playwright. His dad, however, doubted his success there and made him work for a shoe company. He later went back to school and had his two plays “Candles to the Sun” and “The Fugitive Kind” produced in 1937. He graduated from the University of Iowa a year later. He changed his name to “Tennessee” when he moved to New Orleans.

His play “Battle of Angels” was produced in Boston in 1939, and “The Glass Menagerie,” which many consider to be William’s best play, went out five years later. It was successful in Chicago and then went onto Broadway. Its story was about a boy, his disabled sister, his controlling mother, and their struggles. The play and characters sounded quite similar to his family so it is believed that Williams uses a lot of his own family and friends as inspirations for his plays. Other successes that hit Broadway include “A Streetcar named Desire,” which he won his first Pulitzer Prize on, “Summer and Smoke,” “Camino Real,” and “A Rose Tattoo.” “The Glass Menagerie,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Orpheus Descending,” and “Night of the Iguana” all became major motion pictures. “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” won Williams his second Pulitzer Prize in 1955. In his life, Williams wrote twenty-five full length plays, dozens of short plays as well as screen plays, two novels and a novella, sixty short stories, more than a hundred poems, and an autobiography. 

Tennessee Williams’ life was heavily influenced by Frank Merlo, who served in the U.S. Navy during WWII. Merlo died of lung cancer in 1961, and from there William’s life just fell apart. He deeply struggled with depression and feared going insane. To temporarily clear his head, he turned to prescriptive drugs and alcohol. Williams died on February 24, 1983, at the Hotel Elysée in New York City.

SITE MAP