By: Maranda Hammonds
Student, University of North Carolina at Pembroke

Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanie Williams on March 26, 1911.  His father, Cornelius Williams was a traveling shoe salesman who was very violent and aggressive.  His mother, Edwina Williams was the daughter of a pastor.  She was a gentle woman but became very dominating and demanding as the years passed by.  Then there is Rose, Tennessee’s older sister.  Rose was extremely mentally unstable.  She could not communicate with the outside world.  All of this drama was a key aspect in the writings of Tennessee Williams.

Williams’ writing carreer began at the age of twelve when his mother bought him a typewriter as a gift.  Writing gave Williams a way to express his thoughts and feelings that were built up inside.  He then began to enter writing contests.  During his high school career he won many writing contests.  After high school he enrolled in the University of Missouri to major in journalism.  Unfortunately after two years, he was forced to withdraw from school by his father due to the fact that his grades were terrible.  He was forced to work at a shoe factory.

In 1937, Williams enrolled at Washington University in St. Louis.  During this time his family was breaking apart.  Cornelius Williams loved the freedom of the constant travel of a salesman.  This left his wife at home raising a family without a father.  This made Edwina demanding and dominating causing great mental stress on Rose.  Rose was a victim of verbal abuse as well as much embarrassment.  Edwina demanded that Tennessee bring home “gentlemen callers” like Tom Wingfield was forced to do in The Glass Menagerie (one of Williams’plays).  The main character of the play, Laura, was based on Rose.  Laura, just like Rose, could not fuction correctly due to her demanding mother.  This resulted in the mental breakdown of Laura.  In1937,  Rose was committed to an asylum for the insane.  This affected Williams to the point that he felt guilt about it everyday.

In 1938, Tennessee Williams graduated from the University of Iowa with a  Bachelor of Arts degree.  After graduating, Tennessee immediately tried to find a job. After struggling for a few months he landed a $1,000 Rockefeller Grant to write his first full-lenth play, Battle of Angels.  In 1940, the play opened in Boston.  People were amazed of how so many emotions could be in just one play.  It was not a success, yet it left an impact on everyone who saw it.  A new playwright was known in the broadway business.  In 1944,  The Glass Menagerie was written.  It was about his family and his life in St. Louis.  When writing this play, Williams considered this his happy years.  He had a  job, money, peace and quiet. The Glass Menagerie was a huge success in Chicago and went on to New York’s Broadway.  In 1945, Williams was chosen for the Critic’s Award for The Glass Menagerie.

In 1947, Williams ran across a gentlemen named Frank Merlo.  Merlo served in the Navy in World War II and was a second generation Sicilian American.  The two fell in love and were romantic partners until Merlo died of lung cancer in 1961.  This left Tennessee heart broken and in severe depression.  He thought that he would go insane like his sister Rose.

During the 40’s and 50’s, Williams had his most productive years.  He wrote A Streetcar Named Desire (1948) and won his first Pulitzer Prize.  It was extremely successful in Broadway and considered one of his best works.  During this time he also wrote The Rose Tattoo (1950), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955),  Sweet Bird of Youth (1961) and Night of the Iguana 1961).  He received a Pulitzer for both Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Night of the Iguana.

During the 60’s and 70’s, Williams went through a deep depression with the loss of his lover, father, and his beloved grandfather, Rev. Walter Dakin.  Williams’mental state gradually declined.  He never really got over the guilt of his sister Rose.  Through all this pain he still continued to write.  His later works were not very successful.  In the early 70’s,  he tried to regain some control over his life when he continued to write.  Unfortunately he never had another a great success.  On February 24, 1983, Williams choked to death at the Hotel Elysee in New York.  Tennessee Williams is still considered one of the greatest playwrights ever.
 

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