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Tennessee Williams (Thomas Lanier Williams) was born on March 26, 1911, in Columbus, Mississippi. He was a poet, playwright, and fiction writer. He is considered the greatest Southern playwright and one of the greatest playwrights in American drama. He was the second child of Cornelius Coffin and Edwina Dakin Williams. Cornelius was a shoe salesman, and not a very emotional parent. The lived in Clarksdale, Mississippi for several years, and then moved to St. Louis in the year 1918. Williams older sister was named Rose, and he had a younger brother named Walter. Rose was emotionally and mentally unstable, and this had a great effect on Tennessee. In 1929 Tennessee enrolled in the University of Missouri. Williams deep south accent and poverty made him a target for his classmates and that got him his nickname �Tennessee.� Because of his family�s lack of money, Williams had to quit school and work with his father in the shoe factory. During his time in the factory, and earlier in his childhood he would always write short stories and what not. He worked himself too hard and then moved to live with his grandparents in Memphis, where he continued to write.
All throughout is younger life he struggled with his sexuality, but eventually turned fully homosexual, with a new name, new home, and promising new talent. He met his first love around the late 1940�s, Frank Merlo. They both fell in love, and Frank became Williams romantic partner until his death tragic death in 1961. Frank was a great influence on Williams writing, and Williams himself feared that he would go mental, as did his sister Rose
Williams went back to school in 1938 and received his B.A. degree at age 27 at the University of Iowa where his play �Spring Storm� was presented. Then Williams moved to New Orleans, where he legally changed his name to Tennssee. |
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