Tennessee Williams

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Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams (1965)
Born March 26, 1911
Flag of United States Columbus, Mississippi, USA
Died February 25, 1983 (age 71)
Flag of United States New York, New York

Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), better known by the pseudonym Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright and one of the prominent playwrights of the twentieth century. The name "Tennessee" was a name given to him by college friends because of his southern accent and his father's background in Tennessee. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and for Cat On a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. In addition to those two plays, The Glass Menagerie in 1945 and The Night of the Iguana in 1961 received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards. His 1952 play The Rose Tattoo (dedicated to his boyfriend, Frank Merlo), received the Tony Award for best play. Genre critics maintain that Williams writes in the Southern Gothic style.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Tennessee Williams' family was a very troubled one that provided inspiration for much of his writings. He was born in Columbus, Mississippi, in the home of his maternal grandfather, the local Episcopal rector. (The home is now the Mississippi Welcome Center and tourist office for the city.) His father, Cornelius Williams, was a traveling salesman who became increasingly abusive as his children grew older. Dakin Williams, his brother, was often favored over him by their father. His mother, Edwina Williams, was a descendant of a genteel southern family, and was somewhat smothering. The family moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi, by the time Thomas was three. At eight, he was diagnosed with diphtheria and for two years could do almost nothing, but then his mother decided she wouldn't allow him to continue wasting his time. She encouraged him to use his imagination and gave him a typewriter when he was thirteen.[citation needed]

In 1918, the family moved again to St. Louis, Missouri. In 1927, at the age of 16, Williams won third prize (five dollars) for an essay published in Smart Set entitled, "Can a Good Wife Be a Good Sport?" A year later, he published "The Vengeance of Nitocris" in Weird Tales.

In the early 1930s Williams attended the University of Missouri-Columbia where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. It was there that his fraternity brothers dubbed him Tennessee for his rich southern drawl. In the late 1930s Williams transferred to Washington University for a year, eventually taking a degree from the University of Iowa in 1938. By that time, Williams had written what would be his first publicly performed play, Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay! at 1917 Snowden in Memphis, Tennessee. This work was first performed in 1935 at 1780 Glenview, also in Memphis.

Williams lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. He first moved there in 1939 to write for the WPA and lived first at 722 Toulouse Street, which was the setting of his 1977 play Vieux Carré and is now a part of The Historic New Orleans Collection. He wrote A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) while living at 632 St. Peter Street.

Tennessee was close to his sister Rose who had perhaps the greatest influence on him. She was a slim beauty who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent most of her adult life in mental hospitals. After various unsuccessful attempts at therapy, she became paranoid. 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 Williams, who never forgave their parents for allowing the operation. It may have been one of the factors that drove him to alcoholism. The common "mad heroine" theme that appears in many of his plays may have been influenced by his sister.[citation needed]

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 modelled 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 Williams' mother. Many of his characters are considered autobiographical, including Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and Sebastian in Suddenly, Last Summer. Actress Anne Meacham was a close personal friend of Tennessee Williams and played the lead in many of his plays including Suddenly, Last Summer.

In his memoirs, he claims he became sexually active as a teenager. His biographer, Lyle Leverich, maintained this actually occurred later, in his late 20s. Williams's play, The Parade or Approaching the End of a Summer, written when he was 29 and worked on throughout his life, is an autobiographical depiction of an early romance in Provincetown, Massachusetts. This play was only recently produced for the first time on 1 October 2006 in Provincetown by the Shakespeare on the Cape production company, as part of the First Annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival. His relationship with his secretary, Frank Merlo, lasted from 1947 until Merlo's death from cancer in 1963, and provided stability when Williams produced his most enduring works. Merlo provided balance to many of Williams's frequent bouts with depression[1], especially the fear that like his sister, Rose, he would go insane. The death of his lover drove Williams into a deep, decade-long episode of depression.

Williams was the victim of a gay-bashing in January 1979 in Key West. He was beaten by five teenage 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-homosexuality newspaper ad. Some of his literary critics spoke ill of the "excesses" present in his work, but some believe that these were attacks on Williams's homosexuality.

Tennessee Williams died at the age of 71 after he choked on a bottle cap in his room at the Hotel Elysee in New York. However, some, including his brother Dakin, believe he was murdered. In contrast, the police report from his death seems to indicate that drugs were involved; many prescription drugs were found in the room, and the lack of an adequate gag response that would have released the bottle cap from his throat may have been due to drug and alcohol influence.

Williams was interred in the Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri, despite his stated desire to be buried at sea at approximately the same place as the poet Hart Crane, whom he considered one of his most significant influences. He left his literary rights to Sewanee, The University of the South in honor of his grandfather, Walter Dakin, an alumnus of the university located in Sewanee, Tennessee. The funds today support a creative writing program. When his sister Rose died after many years in a mental institution, she bequeathed over 50 million dollars from her part of the Williams estate to Sewanee, The University of the South as well.

The various experiences of Williams's eventful life often find manifestations within his work. For example, 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof' contains references to, amongst others, homosexuality, mental instability and alcoholism.

In 1989, Williams was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

[edit] Plays

  • Beauty Is the Word (1930)
  • Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay! (1935)
  • Candles to the Sun (1936)
  • The Magic Tower (1936)
  • Fugitive Kind (1937)
  • Spring Storm (1937)
  • Summer at the Lake (1937)
  • The Palooka (1937)
  • The Fat Man's Wife (1938)
  • Not about Nightingales (1938)
  • Adam and Eve on a Ferry (1939)
  • Battle of Angels (1940)
  • The Parade or Approaching the End of a Summer (1940)
  • The Long Goodbye (1940)
  • Auto Da Fé (1941)
  • The Lady of Larkspur Lotion (1941)
  • At Liberty (1942)
  • The Pink Room (1943)
  • The Gentleman Callers (1944)
  • The Glass Menagerie (1944)
  • You Touched Me (1945)
  • Moony's Kid Don't Cry (1946)
  • This Property is Condemned (1946)
  • 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (1946)
  • Portrait of a Madonna (1946)
  • The Last of My Solid Gold Watches (1947)
  • Stairs to the Roof (1947)
  • A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
  • Summer and Smoke (1948)
  • I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix (1951)
  • The Rose Tattoo (1951)
  • Camino Real (1953)
  • Hello from Bertha (1954)
  • Lord Byron's Love Letter (1955) - libretto
  • Three Players of a Summer Game (1955)
  • Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
  • The Dark Room (1956)
  • The Case of the Crushed Petunias (1956)
  • Baby Doll (1956) - original screenplay
  • Orpheus Descending (1957)
  • Suddenly, Last Summer (1958)
  • A Perfect Analysis Given by a Parrot (1958)
  • Garden District (1958)
  • Something Unspoken (1958)
  • Sweet Bird of Youth (1959)
  • The Purification (1959)
  • And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens (1959)
  • Period of Adjustment (1960)
  • The Night of the Iguana (1961)
  • The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1963)
  • The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (1964)
  • Grand (1964)
  • Slapstick Tragedy (The Mutilated and The Gnädiges Fräulein) (1966)
  • The Mutilated (1967)
  • Kingdom of Earth / Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968)
  • Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws (1969)
  • In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969)
  • Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis? (1969)
  • Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen (1970?)
  • I Can't Imagine Tomorrow (1970)
  • The Frosted Glass Coffin (1970)
  • Small Craft Warnings (1972)
  • Out Cry (1973)
  • The Two-Character Play (1973)
  • The Red Devil Battery Sign (1975)
  • Demolition Downtown (1976)
  • This Is (An Entertainment) (1976)
  • Vieux Carré (1977)
  • Tiger Tail (1978)
  • Kirche, Kŭche und Kinder (1979)
  • Creve Coeur (1979)
  • Lifeboat Drill (1979)
  • Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980)
  • The Chalky White Substance (1980)
  • This Is Peaceable Kingdom / Good Luck God (1980)
  • Steps Must be Gentle (1980)
  • The Notebook of Trigorin (1980)
  • Something Cloudy, Something Clear (1981)
  • A House Not Meant to Stand (1982)
  • The One Exception (1983)

[edit] Novels

[edit] Short stories

  • The Vengeance of Nitocris (1928)
  • The Field of Blue Children (1939)
  • Hard Candy: a Book of Stories (1959)
  • Three Players of a Summer Game and Other Stories (1960)
  • The Knightly Quest: a Novella and Four Short Stories (1966)
  • One Arm and Other Stories (1967)
  • Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed: a Book of Stories (1974)
  • Tent Worms (1980)
  • It Happened the day the Sun Rose, and Other Stories (1981)

[edit] Poetry

[edit] Cultural references

  • Williams' work has had a great influence on the British band The The: for example, 'Sweet Bird of Youth' is a track on their album Infected; the track 'August and September' on the album Mind Bomb starts with the lines 'Suddenly last summer/I started going out of my head'.
  • Gore Vidal refers to Williams as the "Glorious Bird" when he met him in Rome after WWII. He noted the image of "the bird is everywhere in his work"[2]
"Tennessee nights just zip-code love.
Commanche becomes as maggot.
Tennessee eyes orange once blue.
Media sells a trace of hate.
His pain forces her agony.
His heart PMRC.
The white man is disease.
His heart PMRC.
Your dream can never earn enough.
Ultimate nihilistic love.
Our epitaph reads like your sin.
Subvert, destroy, beat derelict."'
  • The american indie rock band The National reference Williams in their song "City Middle", in their album "Alligator", in the following excerpt:
"You said, I think I'm like Tennessee Williams
I wait for the click
I wait, but it doesn't kick in"
  • Contemporary rock band The Strokes presumably reference Williams in the opening song to their 2003 album "Room on Fire":
"Tennessee what did you write
I come to get her in the middle of the night."
  • Country music singer Don Williams referred to Williams in his 1980 hit, "Good Ole Boys Like Me," penned by Bob McDill:
"I can still hear the soft Southern winds in the live oak trees
And those Williams boys they still mean a lot to me
Hank and Tennessee
I guess we're all gonna be what we're gonna be"

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Jeste ND, Palmer BW, Jeste DV. Tennessee Williams. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2004 Jul-Aug;12(4):370-5. PMID: 15249274 [1]
  2. ^ Vidal, Gore. Palimpsest. Random House, New York (1995). 

[edit] References

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

[edit] External links


The Plays of Tennessee Williams
Adam and Eve on a Ferry, And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens, At Liberty, Auto Da Fé, Baby Doll (screenplay), Battle of Angels, Beauty Is the Word, Camino Real, Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay!, Candles to the Sun, The Case of the Crushed Petunias, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Chalky White Substance, Clothes for a Summer Hotel, Creve Coeur, The Dark Room, Demolition Downtown, The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, The Fat Man's Wife, The Frosted Glass Coffin, Fugitive Kind, Garden District, The Gentleman Callers (screenplay), The Glass Menagerie, Grand, Hello from Bertha, A House Not Meant to Stand, I Can't Imagine Tomorrow, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix, Kingdom of Earth / Seven Descents of Myrtle, Kirche, Küche und Kinder (play), The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, The Last of My Solid Gold Watches, Lifeboat Drill, The Long Goodbye, Lord Byron's Love Letter (libretto), The Magic Tower, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, Moony's Kid Don't Cry, The Mutilated, The Night of the Iguana, Not about Nightingales, The Notebook of Trigorin, Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws, The One Exception, Orpheus Descending, Out Cry, The Palooka, A Perfect Anaysis Given by a Parrot, Period of Adjustment, The Pink Room, Portait of a Madonna, The Purification, The Red Devil Battery Sign, The Rose Tattoo, Something Unspoken, Slapstick Tragedy (The Mutilated and The Gnädiges Fräulein), Something Cloudy, Something Clear, Spring Storm, Stairs to the Roof, Steps Must be Gentle, A Streetcar Named Desire, Suddenly, Last Summer, Summer and Smoke, Summer at the Lake, Small Craft Warnings, Sweet Bird of Youth, Tiger Tail, This Is (An Entertainment), This is Peaceable Kingdom/Good Luck God, This Property is Condemned, Three Players of a Summer Game, Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton, The Two-Character Play, Vieux Carré, Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis?, You Touched Me
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