Thomas Lanier Williams was born on March 26th, 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi. Williams wrote fiction and motion picture screenplays but is recognized for his plays. Thomas was the first son and second child of Cornelius Coffin and Edwina Dakin Williams. He was named after his grandfather and he insisted on being called Tom by the age of ten. His siblings include an older sister named Rose and a younger brother named Dakin. Williams spent a great deal of time with his sister Rose because she was not very stable, emotionally or mentally. Daryl E. Haley once said that Rose "was emotionally disturbed and destined to spend most of her life in mental institutions." His mother raised Tom because his father was a traveling shoe salesman. Edwina Dakin Williams was the daughter of a minister and very over protective of Thomas. She began to be over protective after he caught Diphtheria when he was five years old. His mother was also an aggressive woman caught up in her fantasies of genteel southern living.
Amanda Wingfield, a character in his play The Glass Menagerie, was modeled after Williams' mother. Cornelius Coffin Williams, Tom's father, spent most of his time on the road. Cornelius came from a very prestigious family that included Mississippi's very first governor and senator. Mr. Haley also states that Tom's father was "at turns distant and abusive," that is, when he was actually around. Toms father also repeatedly favored his younger brother Dakin over both of his older children. Big Daddy, in Tom's play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, is modeled after his father. Thomas once said, in reference to his parents’ relationship, "It was just a wrong marriage." From 1923 to 1926 Thomas attended Ben Blewette Junior High, and was at this time that some of his first stories were published in a local newspaper.

Thomas Williams lived in Clarksdale, Mississippi for several years before moving to St. Louis in 1918 at the age of seven. At age sixteen Tom had his first big moment with the publishing world when he won third place for his essay "Can a Good Wife Be a Good Sport?” Besides winning third place, he also got five dollars from this National Essay Contest. In 1927, also at age sixteen, he published "The Vengeance of Nitocris." In the fall of 1929 he attended the University of Missouri to study journalism. Tom's father found out that Tom's childhood sweetheart, Hazel Kramer, also attended the University and threatened to withdraw him. Their romance soon ended after Williams dropped out of school and became deeply depressed. Thomas said that this time in his life was a "living death" because of his love gone badly. Williams survived his depression through his poetry, plays, and stories, but the strain soon made him have a nervous breakdown. His family then sent him to Memphis to recuperate where he joined a local theater group.

1937 was a very busy year for Thomas Williams. Tom attended the University of Iowa where some of his plays were performed on campus. Also in 1937 his very first full length play, "Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay" was produced in Memphis and two of his plays, Candles to The Sun and The Fugitive Kind, were produced in St. Louis by the Mummers. In 1938 he graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelors Degree in journalism. After that Tom briefly attended Washington University where a fellow poet introduced him to Hart Crane's poetry. Tom was mesmerized and Crane became his idol. In 1939 Tom left home to live in New Orleans where his life, along with his name, changed. Tom adopted the nick name Tennessee Williams. The reason for changing his name was "It was a reaction against my early inferior work, published under my real name." (Williams Pg.2) It was said that he chose this name because his father was from Tennessee and it was unique. Why he picked that name is beyond me because him and his father really didn't have that good of a relationship. While living in New Orleans he entered a Group Theater play-writing contest and won $100 and the attention of an agent named Audrey Wood.

In 1947 Tennessee Williams fell in love with his lover Frank Merlo. Merlo was a second generation Sicilian American who had served in the U.S. Navy in WWII. Together they vacationed in Italy where Williams drew inspiration from the passion for the life that he felt there. In 1948 Williams wrote The Rose Tattoo, which was modeled after his own life experiences in meeting Frank Merlo. It is said that this play was Tennessee's only major play that has a happy ending. On March 31st, 1948 Williams was awarded Best Play of The Year and a Pulitzer for his popular play A Streetcar Named Desire. In 1950 The Glass Menagerie was made into a motion picture along with A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951; because of these two movies Tennessee Williams achieved worldwide fame. In 1953 The Rose Tattoo and Camino Real both failed on Broadway but were revived as classics at The Lincoln Center in 1970. 1964 was the peak in Tennessee's career; twelve films on his writings were produced giving him even more fame. By this time in his life, he had achieved fame that no other playwright of his day could have equaled. Undermining his success was the tragedy of his sister’s insanity. In 1937 the family allowed a pre-frontal lobotomy to be preformed and as a result she spent the rest of her life in a sanitarium.

During Tennessee Williams' last thirty years he divided his time between homes in Key West, New Orleans, and New York. From 1955 on, Williams’s reputation continued to grow. Many more of his works were made into films and produced on Broadway. After fourteen years as a couple tragedies struck in Williams and Merlo's relationship. Merlo died in 1961 after a battle with lung cancer. "When your candle burns low, you've got to believe that the last light shows you something besides the progress of darkness." Williams inscribed this saying on the back of one of Frank Merlo's Pictures.

After Merlo's death Williams went into another deep depression that lasted for ten years. Tom described this time in his life as the 'stoned age' in his autobiography. In 1975 Williams wrote his autobiography and told the story of his own dramatic problems with drugs, alcohol and homosexuality. Tom continued writing for the theater but was unable to repeat the success of his earlier works.

A Streetcar Named Desire contain the poetic dialogue, the symbolism, and the highly original characters for which Williams is noted for and are set in the American south, a regional background which the author used to create a remarkable blend of decadence, nostalgia, and sensuality." (Microsoft Encarta Pg. 1) Elias Kazan, a noted critic from the early twentieth century, states, "Everything in his life is in his plays, and everything in his plays is in his life." Darryl Haley says that Williams plays fit nicely into a genre critics like to call 'Southern Gothic.' Some of the other writers that are in this genre with him are Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner. Haley also was quoted saying, "Who could have foretold that this shy, sickly, confused young man would become one of America's most famous playwrights." R. Barton Palmer notes "Williams had more influence on the development of American cinema than any other twentieth century playwright." "Many of his plays have shocked audiences; they display violence, sexuality, alcoholism, homosexuality, and fetishism in terms that were never before seen on the American stage." (Paul Reuben Pg.6)

On February 24th, 1983 Tennessee Williams died in New York City at the Hotel Elysée at the ripe old age of 71. Darryl E. Haley said, "It is a curious coincidence that Williams life ended in a place that shared the name of the apartment building in which one of his best-known characters, Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire met her figurative end." In A Streetcar Named Desire, the hotel was named Elysian Fields. Williams drew heavily on his family experiences for a lot of his writing. On the day of Williams’s death, the New York evening newspapers issued a list of famous actors and actresses who were in his plays. At his brother Dakin's request, he was buried in St. Louis in a Catholic Ceremony.

Works Cited

Alder, Thomas P. A Streetcar Named Desire: The Moth and The Lantern. Boston. Twayne Publishers. 1990.

Falk, Signi. Tennessee Williams. Boston. Twayne Publishers. 1978.

Haley, Darryl E. Biography: Tennessee Williams.10-14-00. East Tennessee State University. 2-7-02.

"Tennessee Williams". Microsoft Encarta. 1998ed.

Reuben, Paul P. American Drama-Tennessee Williams (1911-1983). 1-6-02. 2-7-02.

Sieja, Jackson, Nielsen, Rogers. Achievements. 5-22-99. 2-11-02.

Sieja, Jackson, Nielsen, Rogers. Welcome to Tennessee Williams' Homepage. 4-10-00. 2-11-02.

Sieja, Jackson, Nielsen, Rogers. Biography. 4-22-99. 2-11-02.

The Kennedy Center Honors. Tennessee Williams. 4-9-97. 2-11-02.

MWP: Tennessee Williams (1911-1983). 8-21-01. 2-11-02 Http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/English/ms-write.../williams_tennessee.htm