Thomas Lanier Williams was born on March 26, 1911 to Cornelius and Edwina Dakin Williams in Columbus, Mississippi. Tennessee’s home life thoroughly prepared him for a career in writing about the social outcasts in society. When he was seven years old, Williams was diagnosed with diphtheria. The disease paralyzed him for two years. His mother encouraged him to use his imagination a lot because he was so limited in what he could do. A few years later, his mother bought him a typewriter and encouraged him to write stories. His father was a traveling shoe manufacturer and was almost never home. When he was home he drank and gambled. Cornelius favored Dakin, his youngest son, which pushed Tennessee further from his brother and his father. His older sister was emotionally unstable and would most likely end up in a mental institution at some point in her life. Because of his strained relationship with his dad and older brothers, he spent most of his time with his mom and older sister. After high school, Tennessee went to college.
In 1929, Thomas set off to the University of Missouri. This experience was short lived however, because he moved back home after a year. His father was not happy that his son was aspiring to be an author. Cornelius would make Thomas work long hours at the shoe factory in hopes that he would change his son’s mind and that Thomas would pursue a career in business. Cornelius’s efforts failed. Thomas ended up in the hospital because of exhaustion and a heart condition. In 1937, Cornelius agreed to allow Thomas to go back to school. This time, Thomas chose the University of Washington. After spending some time at the University of Washington, Williams decided to transfer again to the University of Iowa to finish out his studies. It was at this university at Thomas acquired the nickname Tennessee. He published his first story under the name Tennessee Williams. Tennessee didn’t want to be remembered for his past failures and the new pen name gave him the out he was looking for.
When his dreams of joining the Writers Project of Chicago failed, Williams moved to New Orleans. He wrote the “Glass Menagerie” much of which was based on his home life. The play took off and made him a success almost overnight. Although the “Glass Menagerie” was successful many of his other plays had not yet gained popularity. During this time, Williams worked as a theatre usher, teletype operator, and a writer, to support himself. In 1943, he got a job as a scriptwriter.
In 1945, he wrote the play “A Street Car Named Desire”. The story later won the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critics Award. Although Williams’ career was starting to take off, he was beginning to pick up some of his father’s bad habits. He began drinking excessively. He was lonely and alcohol became his escape. His sister was permanently put into a sanitarium. Later, the drinking became so bad he had to have surgery to remove a lump that he had gotten from drinking too much. Williams feared that he would end up insane like his sister Rose.
Williams’s career began to take off. He traveled through parts of Europe and Africa and then settled down and had dual residency in Key West and New York City. Many of his plays were being turned into movies and Broadway plays. On February 24, 1983 at his New York City residence, Williams took his evening pills to help him sleep. Later that night he reached for another pill but having poor eyesight, grabbed a plastic cap instead. The cap got lodged in his throat and took his life.
