Tennessee Williams
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Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries
Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...
and
Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...
, he is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama. At age 33, after years of obscurity, Williams suddenly became famous with the success of '' The Glass Menagerie'' (1944) in New York City. It was the first of a string of successes, including ''
A Streetcar Named Desire ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of pe ...
'' (1947), ''
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' is a 1955 American three-act play by Tennessee Williams. The play, an adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", was written between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his ...
'' (1955), '' Sweet Bird of Youth'' (1959), and '' The Night of the Iguana'' (1961). With his later work, Williams attempted a new style that did not appeal as widely to audiences. His drama ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century alongside Eugene O'Neill's '' Long Day's Journey into Night'' and Arthur Miller's ''
Death of a Salesman ''Death of a Salesman'' is a 1949 stage play written by the American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a ...
''. Much of Williams's most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays, and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.


Early life

Thomas Lanier Williams III was born in
Columbus, Mississippi Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, Mississippi, Lowndes County, on the eastern border of Mississippi, United States, located primarily east, but also north and northeast of the Tombigbee River, which is also part of the ...
, of English, Welsh, and
Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
ancestry, the second child of Edwina Dakin (August 9, 1884 – June 1, 1980) and Cornelius Coffin "C. C." Williams (August 21, 1879 – March 27, 1957). His father was a traveling shoe salesman who became an alcoholic and was frequently away from home. His mother, Edwina, was the daughter of Rose O. Dakin, a music teacher, and the Reverend Walter Dakin, an Episcopal priest from Illinois who was assigned to a parish in
Clarksdale, Mississippi Clarksdale is a city in and the county seat of Coahoma County, Mississippi, Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. It is located along the Sunflower River. Clarksdale is named after John Clark, a settler who founded the city in the mid-19t ...
, shortly after Williams's birth. Williams lived in his grandfather's Episcopal rectory with his family for much of his early childhood and was close to his grandparents. Among his ancestors was musician and poet Sidney Lanier. He had two siblings, older sister Rose Isabel Williams (1909–1996) and younger brother Walter Dakin Williams (1919–2008). As a young child, Williams nearly died from a case of
diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacteria, bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild Course (medicine), clinical course, but in some outbreaks, the mortality rate approaches 10%. Signs a ...
that left him frail and virtually confined to his house during a year of recuperation. At least partly due to his illness, he was considered a weak child by his father. Cornelius Williams, a descendant of
East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 coun ...
pioneers, had a violent temper and was prone to use his fists. He regarded what he thought was his son's effeminacy with disdain. Edwina, locked in an unhappy marriage, focused her attention almost entirely on her frail young son. Critics and historians agree that Williams drew from his own dysfunctional family in much of his writing and that his desire to break free from his puritan upbringing propelled him towards writing. When Williams was eight years old, his father was promoted to a job at the home office of the International Shoe Company in
St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
. His mother's continual search for a more appropriate home, as well as his father's heavy drinking and loudly turbulent behavior, caused them to move numerous times around St. Louis. Williams attended Soldan High School, a setting he referred to in his play ''The Glass Menagerie''. Later he studied at University City High School. At age 16, Williams won third prize for an essay published in '' Smart Set'', titled "Can a Good Wife Be a Good Sport?" A year later, his short story " The Vengeance of Nitocris" was published (as by "Thomas Lanier Williams") in the August 1928 issue of the magazine ''
Weird Tales ''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, printe ...
''. These early publications did not lead to any significant recognition or appreciation of Williams's talent, and he would struggle for more than a decade to establish his writing career. Later, in 1928, Williams first visited Europe with his maternal grandfather Dakin.


Education

From 1929 to 1931, Williams attended the
University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...
in Columbia, where he enrolled in journalism classes. He was bored by his classes and distracted by unrequited love for a girl. Soon he began entering his poetry, essays, stories, and plays in writing contests, hoping to earn extra income. His first submitted play was ''Beauty Is the Word'' (1930), followed by ''Hot Milk at Three in the Morning'' (1932). As recognition for ''Beauty,'' a play about rebellion against religious upbringing, he became the first freshman to receive honorable mention in a writing competition. At University of Missouri, Williams joined the
Alpha Tau Omega Alpha Tau Omega (), commonly known as ATO, is an American social Fraternities and sororities, fraternity founded at the Virginia Military Institute in 1865 by Otis Allan Glazebrook. The fraternity has around 250 active and inactive chapters an ...
fraternity, but he did not fit in well with his fraternity brothers. After he failed a military training course in his junior year, his father pulled him out of school and put him to work at the International Shoe Company factory. Although Williams hated the monotony, the job forced him out of the gentility of his upbringing. His dislike of his new 9-to-5 routine drove Williams to write prodigiously. He set a goal of writing one story a week. Williams often worked on weekends and late into the night. His mother recalled his intensity:
Tom would go to his room with black coffee and cigarettes and I would hear the typewriter clicking away at night in the silent house. Some mornings when I walked in to wake him for work, I would find him sprawled fully dressed across the bed, too tired to remove his clothes.
Overworked, unhappy, and lacking further success with his writing, by his 24th birthday Williams had suffered a
nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...
and left his job. Memories of this period and of a particular factory co-worker would contribute to the character
Stanley Kowalski Stanley Kowalski is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams' play '' A Streetcar Named Desire''. In the play Stanley lives in the working-class Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans with his wife, Stella ( DuBois), and is employe ...
in ''A Streetcar Named Desire''. By the mid-1930s his mother separated from his father due to his worsening alcoholism and abusive temper. They agreed to a legal separation in 1946 but never divorced. In 1936, Williams enrolled at Washington University in St. Louis where he wrote the play ''Me, Vashya'' (1937). After not winning the school's poetry prize, he decided to drop out. In the autumn of 1937, he transferred to the
University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...
in
Iowa City Iowa City is the largest city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. At the time of the 2020 census the population was 74,828, making it the state's fifth-most populous city. The Iowa City metropolitan area, which enc ...
, where he graduated with a B.A. in English in August 1938. He later studied at the Dramatic Workshop of
The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...
in New York City. Speaking of his early days as a playwright and an early collaborative play called ''Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay!'', Williams wrote, "The laughter ... enchanted me. Then and there the theatre and I found each other for better and for worse. I know it's the only thing that saved my life." Around 1939, he adopted Tennessee Williams as his professional name, in acknowledgement of his Southern accent and roots.


Literary influences

Williams's writings reference some of the poets and writers he most admired in his early years: Hart Crane, Arthur Rimbaud,
Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...
,
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
,
Clarence Darrow Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the 19th century for high-profile representations of trade union causes, and in the 20th century for several criminal matters, including the ...
, D. H. Lawrence,
Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer and critic who was an important figure in the Literary modernism, modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world and have been ...
,
August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (; ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than 60 pla ...
,
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...
,
Thomas Wolfe Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist and short story writer. He is known largely for his first novel, '' Look Homeward, Angel'' (1929), and for the short fiction that appeared during the last ye ...
,
Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...
, William Inge,
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
, and, according to some,
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...
.


Career

As Williams was struggling to gain production and an audience for his work in the late 1930s, he worked at a string of menial jobs that included a stint as caretaker on a chicken ranch in Laguna Beach, California. In 1939, with the help of his agent Audrey Wood, Williams was awarded a $1,000 grant from the
Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...
in recognition of his play '' Battle of Angels.'' It was produced in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, Massachusetts in 1940 and was poorly received. Using some of the Rockefeller funds, Williams moved to New Orleans in 1939 to write for the
Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...
(WPA), a federally funded program of the
New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
era. Williams lived for a time in New Orleans'
French Quarter The French Quarter, also known as the (; ; ), is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans () was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Square" in English), a ...
, including 722 Toulouse Street, the setting of his 1977 play '' Vieux Carré''. The building is now part of The Historic New Orleans Collection. The Rockefeller grant brought him to the attention of the Hollywood film industry and Williams received a six-month contract as a writer from the
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
film studio, earning $250 weekly. During the winter of 1944–45, his memory play ''The Glass Menagerie,'' developed from his 1943 short story "Portrait of a Girl in Glass", was produced in Chicago and garnered good reviews. It moved to New York where it became an instant hit and enjoyed a long Broadway run.
Elia Kazan Elias Kazantzoglou (, ; September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003), known as Elia Kazan ( ), was a Greek-American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one of the most honored and inf ...
(who directed many of Williams's greatest successes) said of Williams: "Everything in his life is in his plays, and everything in his plays is in his life." ''The Glass Menagerie'' won the award for the best play of the season, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. The huge success of his next play, ''
A Streetcar Named Desire ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of pe ...
'', cemented his reputation as a great playwright in 1947. During the late 1940s and 1950s, Williams began to travel widely with his partner Frank Merlo (1922 – September 21, 1963), often spending summers in Europe. He moved often to stimulate his writing, living in New York, New Orleans,
Key West Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...
, Rome,
Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, and London. Williams wrote, "Only some radical change can divert the downward course of my spirit, some startling new place or people to arrest the drift, the drag." Between 1948 and 1959 Williams had seven of his plays produced on Broadway: '' Summer and Smoke'' (1948), '' The Rose Tattoo'' (1951), '' Camino Real'' (1953), ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' (1955), '' Orpheus Descending'' (1957), '' Garden District'' (1958), and '' Sweet Bird of Youth'' (1959). By 1959, he had earned two
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
s, three New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, three Donaldson Awards, and a
Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...
. Williams's work reached wider audiences in the early 1950s when '' The Glass Menagerie'' and ''
A Streetcar Named Desire ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of pe ...
'' were adapted into motion pictures. Later plays also adapted for the screen included ''
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' is a 1955 American three-act play by Tennessee Williams. The play, an adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", was written between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his ...
, '' The Rose Tattoo'', '' Orpheus Descending'', The Night of the Iguana'', '' Sweet Bird of Youth'', and '' Summer and Smoke''. After the extraordinary successes of the 1940s and 1950s, he had more personal turmoil and theatrical failures in the 1960s and 1970s. Although he continued to write every day, the quality of his work suffered from his increasing alcohol and drug consumption, as well as occasional poor choices of collaborators. In 1963, his partner Frank Merlo died. Consumed by depression over the loss, and in and out of treatment facilities while under the control of his mother and brother Dakin, Williams spiraled downward. His plays ''Kingdom of Earth'' (1967), ''In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel'' (1969), ''Small Craft Warnings'' (1973), ''The Two Character Play'' (also called ''Out Cry'', 1973), ''The Red Devil Battery Sign'' (1976), ''Vieux Carré'' (1978), ''Clothes for a Summer Hotel'' (1980), and others were all box office failures. Negative press notices wore down his spirit. His last play, ''A House Not Meant to Stand,'' was produced in Chicago in 1982. Despite largely positive reviews, it ran for only 40 performances. In 1974, Williams received the
St. Louis Literary Award The St. Louis Literary Award has been presented yearly since 1967 to a distinguished figure in literature. It is sponsored by the Saint Louis University Library Associates. Winners Past Recipients of the Award: *2025 Colson Whitehead *2024 J ...
from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. In 1979, four years before his death, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.


Personal life

Throughout his life, Williams remained close to his sister, Rose, who was diagnosed with
schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...
as a young woman. In 1943, as her behavior became increasingly disturbing, she was subjected to a
lobotomy A lobotomy () or leucotomy is a discredited form of Neurosurgery, neurosurgical treatment for mental disorder, psychiatric disorder or neurological disorder (e.g. epilepsy, Depression in childhood and adolescence, depression) that involves sev ...
, requiring her to be institutionalised for the rest of her life. As soon as he was financially able, Williams moved Rose to a private institution just north of
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, where he often visited her. He gave her a percentage interest in several of his most successful plays, the royalties from which were applied toward her care. The devastating effects of Rose's treatment may have contributed to Williams's alcoholism and his dependence on various combinations of
amphetamine Amphetamine (contracted from Alpha and beta carbon, alpha-methylphenethylamine, methylphenethylamine) is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, an ...
s and
barbiturate Barbiturates are a class of depressant, depressant drugs that are chemically derived from barbituric acid. They are effective when used medication, medically as anxiolytics, hypnotics, and anticonvulsants, but have physical and psychological a ...
s. After some early attempts at relationships with women, by the late 1930s, Williams began exploring his homosexuality. In New York City, he joined a gay social circle that included fellow writer and close friend Donald Windham (1920–2010) and Windham's then-boyfriend Fred Melton. In the summer of 1940, Williams initiated a relationship with Kip Kiernan (1918–1944), a young dancer he met in
Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Provi ...
. When Kiernan left him to marry a woman, Williams was distraught. Kiernan's death four years later at age 26 was another heavy blow. On a 1945 visit to
Taos, New Mexico Taos () is a town in Taos County, New Mexico, Taos County, in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Santa Fe ...
, Williams met Pancho Rodríguez y González, a hotel clerk of Mexican heritage. Rodríguez was prone to jealous rages and excessive drinking, and their relationship was tempestuous. In February 1946, Rodríguez left New Mexico to join Williams in his
New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
apartment. They lived and traveled together until late 1947, when Williams ended the relationship. Rodríguez and Williams remained friends, however, and were in contact as late as the 1970s. Williams spent the spring and summer of 1948 in
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
in the company of a young man named "Rafaello" in Williams' ''Memoirs''. He provided financial assistance to the younger man for several years afterward. Williams drew from this for his first novel, ''The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone''. When he returned to New York City, Williams met and fell in love with Frank Merlo (1921–1963). An occasional actor of Sicilian ancestry, he had served in the U.S. Navy during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. This was the enduring romantic relationship of Williams's life, and it lasted 14 years until infidelities and drug abuse on both sides ended it. Merlo, who had become Williams's personal secretary, took on most of the details of their domestic life. He provided a period of happiness and stability, acting as a balance to the playwright's frequent bouts with depression. Williams feared that, like his sister Rose, he would fall into insanity. His years with Merlo, in an apartment in Manhattan and a modest house in Key West, Florida were Williams's happiest and most productive. Shortly after their breakup, Merlo was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Williams returned to him and cared for him until his death on September 20, 1963. In the years following Merlo's death, Williams descended into a period of nearly catatonic depression and increasing drug use, which resulted in several hospitalizations and commitments to mental health facilities. He submitted to injections by Dr. Max Jacobson, known popularly as Dr. Feelgood, who used increasing amounts of amphetamines to overcome his depression. Jacobson combined these with prescriptions for the sedative Seconal to relieve his insomnia. During this time, influenced by his brother, a
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
convert, Williams joined the Catholic Church, however he never attributed much significance to religion in his personal life. He was never truly able to recoup his earlier success, or to entirely overcome his dependence on prescription drugs. As Williams grew older, he felt increasingly alone; he feared old age and losing his sexual appeal to younger gay men. In the 1970s, when he was in his 60s, Williams had a lengthy relationship with Robert Carroll, a
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
veteran and aspiring writer in his 20s. Williams had deep affection for Carroll and respect for what he saw as the younger man's talents. Along with Williams's sister Rose, Carroll was one of the two people who received a bequest in Williams's will. Williams described Carroll's behavior as a combination of "sweetness" and "beastliness". Because Carroll had a drug problem, as did Williams, friends including
Maria Britneva Maria Britneva, Baroness St Just, (2 July 1921 – 15 February 1994) known as Maria St Just, was a Russian-British actress who was a close friend of Tennessee Williams. As co-trustee of the trust which he set up for his sister, she became his l ...
saw the relationship as destructive. Williams wrote that Carroll played on his "acute loneliness" as an aging gay man. When the two men broke up in 1979, Williams called Carroll a "twerp", but they remained friends until Williams died four years later.


Death

On February 25, 1983, Williams was found dead at age 71 in his suite at the Hotel Elysée in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. Chief Medical Examiner of New York City Elliot M. Gross reported that Williams had choked to death from inhaling the plastic cap of the type used on bottles of nasal spray or eye solution. The report was later corrected on August 14, 1983, to state that Williams had been using the plastic cap found in his mouth to ingest
barbiturates Barbiturates are a class of depressant drugs that are chemically derived from barbituric acid. They are effective when used medically as anxiolytics, hypnotics, and anticonvulsants, but have physical and psychological addiction potential as ...
and had actually died from a toxic level of Seconal. He wrote in his will in 1972: However, his brother Dakin Williams arranged for him to be buried at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, where his mother is buried. According to the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', "most of his estate was left to the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., with the bulk of it to remain in trust for his sister during her lifetime." Rose Williams, Tennessee's sister, died in 1996 after many years in a mental institution in New York state; the university subsequently received about $7 million, which supports a creative writing program.


Posthumous recognition

From February 1 to July 21, 2011, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth, the
Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...
at the University of Texas at Austin, the home of Williams's archive, exhibited 250 of his personal items. The exhibit, titled "Becoming Tennessee Williams", included a collection of Williams manuscripts, correspondence, photographs and artwork."Becoming Tennessee Williams"
Exhibit at the University of Texas of Austin, Feb 1 to July 31, 2011
The Ransom Center holds the earliest and largest collections of Williams's papers, including all of his earliest manuscripts, the papers of his mother Edwina Williams, and those of his long-time agent Audrey Wood. In late 2009, Williams was inducted into the Poets' Corner at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York. Performers and artists who took part in his induction included
Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress. In her career spanning over six decades, she has garnered List of awards and nominations received by Vanessa Redgrave, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony A ...
, playwright
John Guare John Guare ( ; born February 5, 1938) is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of '' The House of Blue Leaves'' and '' Six Degrees of Separation''. Early life He was raised in Jackson Heights, Queens.Druckma ...
,
Eli Wallach Eli Herschel Wallach ( ; December 7, 1915 – June 24, 2014) was an American film, television, and stage actor from New York City. Known for his character actor roles, his entertainment career spanned over six decades. He received a British Aca ...
, Sylvia Miles, Gregory Mosher, and Ben (Griessmeyer) Berry. The Tennessee Williams Theatre in Key West, Florida, is named for him. The Tennessee Williams Key West Exhibit on Truman Avenue houses rare Williams memorabilia, photographs, and pictures including his famous typewriter. At the time of his death, Williams had been working on a final play, '' In Masks Outrageous and Austere'', which attempted to reconcile certain forces and facts of his own life. This was a continuing theme in his work. As of September 2007, author
Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...
was completing the play, and
Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. He started out his career as a young actor studying under Stella Adler before working as a film critic for ''Fi ...
was slated to direct its Broadway debut. The play received its world premiere in New York City in April 2012, directed by David Schweizer and starring Shirley Knight as Babe. The rectory of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Columbus, Mississippi, where Williams's grandfather Dakin was rector at the time of Williams's birth, was moved to another location in 1993 for preservation. It was newly renovated in 2010 for use by the City of Columbus as the Tennessee Williams Welcome Center. Williams's literary legacy is represented by the literary agency headed by Georges Borchardt. In 1985, French author-composer
Michel Berger Michel Jean Hamburger (28 November 1947 – 2 August 1992), known professionally as Michel Berger, was a French singer and songwriter. He was a figure of France's pop music scene for two decades as a singer. As a songwriter he wrote for artists ...
wrote a song dedicated to Tennessee Williams, " Quelque chose de Tennessee" (Something of Tennessee), for
Johnny Hallyday Jean-Philippe Léo Smet (; 15 June 1943 – 5 December 2017), better known by his stage name Johnny Hallyday, was a French rock and roll and Pop music, pop singer and actor, credited with having brought rock and roll to France. During a career ...
. It became one of the singer's more famous songs. Since 1986, the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival has been held annually in New Orleans, Louisiana, in commemoration of the playwright. The festival takes place at the end of March to coincide with Williams's birthday. ''The Tennessee Williams Songbook'' is a one woman show written and directed by David Kaplan, a Williams scholar and curator of Provincetown's Tennessee Williams Festival, and starring Tony Award nominated actress Alison Fraser. The show features songs taken from plays of Williams's canon, woven together with text to create a new narrative. The show premiered at the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. The show was recorded on CD and distributed by Ghostlight Records. In 2014 Williams was one of the inaugural honorees in the
Rainbow Honor Walk The Rainbow Honor Walk (RHW) is a walk of fame installation in San Francisco, California to honor notable lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals from around the world "who left a lasting mark on society." Its bronze ...
, a
walk of fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...
in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood noting
LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...
people who have "made significant contributions in their fields." In 2015, The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans was founded by Co-Artistic Directors Nick Shackleford and Augustin J Correro. The New Orleans–based non-profit theatre company is the first year-round professional theatre company that focuses exclusively on the works of Williams. Since 2016, St. Louis, Missouri has held an annual Tennessee Williams Festival, featuring a main production and related events such as literary discussions and new plays inspired by his work. In 2018 the festival produced ''A Streetcar Named Desire''. The
U.S. Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...
honored Williams on a stamp issued on October 13, 1995 as part of its literary arts series. Williams is honored with a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. He is also inducted into the Clarksdale Walk of Fame. On October 17, 2019, the Mississippi Writers Trail installed a historical marker commemorating William's literary contributions during his namesake festival produced by the City of Clarksdale, Mississippi.


Works

Characters in his plays are often seen as representations of his family members. Laura Wingfield in ''The Glass Menagerie'' is thought to be modeled on his sister Rose. Some biographers believed that the character of
Blanche DuBois Blanche DuBois (married name Grey) is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams' 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning play ''A Streetcar Named Desire''. The character was written for Tallulah Bankhead and made popular to later audiences with Elia Kaza ...
in ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' also is based on her and that the mental deterioration of Blanche's character is inspired by Rose's mental health struggles. Amanda Wingfield in ''The Glass Menagerie'' generally was taken to represent Williams's mother Edwina. Characters such as Tom Wingfield in ''The Glass Menagerie'' and Sebastian in ''Suddenly, Last Summer'' were understood to represent Williams himself. In addition, he used a lobotomy as a motif in ''
Suddenly, Last Summer ''Suddenly Last Summer'' is a one-act play by Tennessee Williams, written in New York in 1957. It opened off Broadway on January 7, 1958, as part of a double bill with another of Williams' one-acts, '' Something Unspoken'' (written in London in ...
''. The
Pulitzer Prize for Drama The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were a ...
was awarded to ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' in 1948 and to ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' in 1955. These two plays later were adapted as highly successful films by noted directors
Elia Kazan Elias Kazantzoglou (, ; September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003), known as Elia Kazan ( ), was a Greek-American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one of the most honored and inf ...
(''Streetcar''), with whom Williams developed a very close artistic relationship, and
Richard Brooks Richard Brooks (born Reuben Sax; May 18, 1912 – March 11, 1992) was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and film producer. Nominated for eight Academy Awards in his career, he was best known for ''Blackboard Jungle'' (1955), '' ...
(''Cat''). Both plays included references to elements of Williams's life such as homosexuality, mental instability, and alcoholism. Although '' The Flowering Peach'' by
Clifford Odets Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In the mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize–winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withd ...
was the preferred choice of the Pulitzer Prize jury in 1955, and ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' was at first considered the weakest of the five shortlisted nominees, Joseph Pulitzer Jr., chairman of the Board, had seen ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' and thought it worthy of the drama prize. The Board went along with him after considerable discussion. Williams wrote '' The Parade, or Approaching the End of a Summer'' when he was 29, and worked on it sporadically throughout his life. A semi-autobiographical depiction of his 1940 romance with Kip Kiernan in Provincetown, Massachusetts, it was produced for the first time on October 1, 2006, in Provincetown by the Shakespeare on the Cape production company. This was part of the First Annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival. ''Something Cloudy, Something Clear'' (1981) is also based on his memories of Provincetown in the 1940s. His last play went through many drafts as he was trying to reconcile what would be the end of his life. There are many versions of it, but it is referred to as '' In Masks Outrageous and Austere''.


Plays

* '' Candles to the Sun'' (1936) * '' Fugitive Kind'' (1937) * ''
Spring Storm ''Spring Storm'' is a three-act play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams. He began writing it when he was twenty-six years old, in 1937, while enrolled in the University of Iowa's drama school, and completed the play the following ...
'' (1937) * ''Me Vashya'' (1937) * '' Not About Nightingales'' (1938) * '' Battle of Angels'' (1940) * '' I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix'' (1941) * '' The Glass Menagerie'' (1944) * '' You Touched Me!'' (1945) * '' Stairs to the Roof'' (1947) * ''
A Streetcar Named Desire ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of pe ...
'' (1947) * '' Summer and Smoke'' (1948) * '' The Rose Tattoo'' (1951) * '' Camino Real'' (1953) * ''
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' is a 1955 American three-act play by Tennessee Williams. The play, an adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", was written between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his ...
'' (1955) * '' Orpheus Descending'' (1957) * '' Suddenly Last Summer'' (1958) * '' Sweet Bird of Youth'' (1959) * '' Period of Adjustment'' (1960) * '' The Night of the Iguana'' (1961) * '' The Eccentricities of a Nightingale'' (1962, rewriting of ''Summer and Smoke'') * '' The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore'' (1963) * '' The Mutilated'' (1965) * '' The Seven Descents of Myrtle'' (1968, aka ''Kingdom of Earth'') * '' In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel'' (1969) * '' Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis?'' (1969) * '' Small Craft Warnings'' (1972) * '' The Two-Character Play'' (1973) * '' Out Cry'' (1973, rewriting of ''The Two-Character Play'') * '' The Red Devil Battery Sign'' (1975) * '' This Is (An Entertainment)'' (1976) * '' Vieux Carré'' (1977) * ''Tiger Tail'' (1978) * '' A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur'' (1979) * '' Clothes for a Summer Hotel'' (1980) * '' The Notebook of Trigorin'' (1980) * '' Something Cloudy, Something Clear'' (1981) * '' A House Not Meant to Stand'' (1982) * '' In Masks Outrageous and Austere'' (1983)


Novels

* ''The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone'' (1950, adapted for films in
1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...
and
2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...
) * ''Moise and the World of Reason'' (1975)


Screenplays and teleplays

* '' The Glass Menagerie'' (1950) * ''
A Streetcar Named Desire ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of pe ...
'' (1951) * '' The Rose Tattoo'' (1955) * '' Baby Doll'' (1956) * ''
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' is a 1955 American three-act play by Tennessee Williams. The play, an adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", was written between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his ...
'' (1958) * ''
Suddenly, Last Summer ''Suddenly Last Summer'' is a one-act play by Tennessee Williams, written in New York in 1957. It opened off Broadway on January 7, 1958, as part of a double bill with another of Williams' one-acts, '' Something Unspoken'' (written in London in ...
'' (1959) * '' The Fugitive Kind'' (1959) * ''Ten Blocks on the Camino Real'' (1966) * '' Boom!'' (1968) * '' Stopped Rocking and Other Screenplays'' (1984) * '' The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond'' (2009; screenplay from 1957)


Short stories

* " The Vengeance of Nitocris" (1928) * "The Field of Blue Children" (1939) * "Oriflamme" (1944) * "The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin" (1951) * '' One Arm and Other Stories'' (1948) ** "One Arm" ** "The Malediction" ** "The Poet" ** "Chronicle of a Demise" ** " Desire and the Black Masseur" ** "Portrait of a Girl in Glass" ** "The Important Thing" ** " The Angel in the Alcove" ** "The Field of Blue Children" ** "The Night of the Iguana" ** " The Yellow Bird" * '' Hard Candy: A Book of Stories'' (1954) **"Three Players of a Summer Game" **"Two on a Party" **"The Resemblance between a Violin Case and a Coffin" **"Hard Candy" **"Rubio y Morena" **"The Mattress by the Tomato Patch" **"The Coming of Something to the Widow Holly" **"The Vine" **" The Mysteries of the Joy Rio" *''The Knightly Quest: a Novella and Four Short Stories'' (1966) **"The Knightly Quest" **"Mama's Old Stucco House" **"Man Bring This Up Road" **"The Kingdom of Earth" **"Grand" * ''Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed: a Book of Stories'' (1974) **"Happy August the Tenth" **"The Inventory at Fontana Belle" **"Miss Coynte of Greeme" **"Sabbatha and Solitude" **"Completed" **"Oriflamme" * "Tent Worms" (1980) * ''It Happened the Day the Sun Rose'' (1981), published by Sylvester & Orphanos * ''Collected Stories'' (1985) (New Directions)


One-act plays

Williams wrote more than 70 one-act plays during his lifetime. The one-acts explored many of the same themes that dominated his longer works. Williams's major collections are published by New Directions in New York City. * ''American Blues'' (1948) * '' Mister Paradise and Other One-Act Plays'' (2005) * '' Dragon Country: a book of one-act plays'' (1970) * '' The Traveling Companion and Other Plays'' (2008) * '' The Magic Tower and Other One-Act Plays'' (2011) ** ''At Liberty'' (1939) ** ''The Magic Tower'' (1936) ** ''Me, Vashya'' (1937) ** ''Curtains for the Gentleman'' (1936) ** ''In Our Profession'' (1938) ** ''Every Twenty Minutes'' (1938) ** ''Honor the Living'' (1937) ** ''The Case of the Crushed Petunias'' (1941) ** ''Moony's Kid Don't Cry'' (1936) ** ''The Dark Room'' (1939) ** ''The Pretty Trap'' (1944) ** ''Interior: Panic'' (1946) ** ''Kingdom of Earth'' (1967) ** ''I Never Get Dressed Till After Dark on Sundays'' (1973) ** ''Some Problems for the Moose Lodge'' (1980) * '' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays'' (1946 and 1953) ** ''Something Wild...'' (introduction) (1953) ** ''27 Wagons Full of Cotton'' (1946 and 1953) ** ''The Purification'' (1946 and 1953) ** ''The Lady of Larkspur Lotion'' (1946 and 1953) ** ''The Last of My Solid Gold Watches'' (1946 and 1953) ** ''Portrait of a Madonna'' (1946 and 1953) ** ''Auto-da-Fé'' (1946 and 1953) ** ''Lord Byron's Love Letter'' (1946 and 1953) ** ''The Strangest Kind of Romance'' (1946 and 1953) ** ''The Long Goodbye'' (1946 and 1953) ** ''At Liberty'' (1946) ** ''Moony's Kid Don't Cry'' (1946) ** ''Hello from Bertha'' (1946 and 1953) ** ''This Property Is Condemned'' (1946 and 1953) ** ''Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen...'' (1953) ** ''Something Unspoken'' (1953) * ''Now the Cats with Jeweled Claws and Other One-Act Plays'' (2016) ** ''A Recluse and His Guest'' (1982) ** ''Now the Cats with Jeweled Claws'' (1981) ** ''Steps Must Be Gentle'' (1980) ** ''Ivan's Widow'' (1982) ** ''This Is the Peaceable Kingdom'' (1981) ** ''Aimez-vous Ionesco?'' (c.1975) ** ''The Demolition Downtown'' (1971) ** ''Lifeboat Drill'' (1979) ** ''Once in a Lifetime'' (1939) ** ''The Strange Play'' (1939) * '' The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Volume VI'' * '' The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Volume VII''


Poetry

* ''In the Winter of Cities'' (1956) * ''Androgyne, Mon Amour'' (1977) * '' The Collected Poems of Tennessee Williams'' (2002)


Non-fiction

* ''Memoirs'' (1975) * '' New Selected Essays: Where I Live'' (2009)


Selected works

* Gussow, Mel and Holditch, Kenneth, eds. ''Tennessee Williams, Plays 1937–1955'' (
Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published more than 300 volumes by authors ...
, 2000) . ** ''Spring Storm'' ** ''Not About Nightingales'' ** ''Battle of Angels'' ** ''I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix'' ** ''From 27 Wagons Full of Cotton'' (1946) *** ''27 Wagons Full of Cotton'' *** ''The Lady of Larkspur Lotion'' *** ''The Last of My Solid Gold Watches'' *** ''Portrait of a Madonna'' *** ''Auto-da-Fé'' *** ''Lord Byron's Love Letter'' *** ''This Property Is Condemned'' ** ''The Glass Menagerie'' ** ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' ** ''Summer and Smoke'' ** ''The Rose Tattoo'' ** ''Camino Real'' ** ''From 27 Wagons Full of Cotton'' (1953) *** "Something Wild" *** ''Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen'' *** ''Something Unspoken'' ** ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' * Gussow, Mel, and Holditch, Kenneth, eds. ''Tennessee Williams, Plays 1957–1980'' (
Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published more than 300 volumes by authors ...
, 2000) . ** '' Orpheus Descending'' ** ''Suddenly, Last Summer'' ** ''Sweet Bird of Youth'' ** ''Period of Adjustment'' ** ''The Night of the Iguana'' ** ''The Eccentricities of a Nightingale'' ** '' The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore'' ** ''The Mutilated'' ** ''Kingdom of Earth'' (''The Seven Descents of Myrtle'') ** ''Small Craft Warnings'' ** ''Out Cry'' ** ''Vieux Carré'' ** ''A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur'' ** "Crazy Night"


See also

* Lanier family tree * Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival * Virginia Spencer Carr, friend and biographer of Williams * Audrey Wood


References


Further reading

*Gross, Robert F., ed. ''Tennessee Williams: A Casebook.''
Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...
(2002). Print. . * Jacobus, Lee. ''The Bedford Introduction to Drama.'' Bedford: Boston. Print. 2009. * Lahr, John. ''Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh.'' W. W. Norton & Co. New York. Print. 2014. . * Leverich, Lyle. ''Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams''. W. W. Norton & Company. Reprint. 1997. . * Saddik, Annette. ''The Politics of Reputation: The Critical Reception of Tennessee Williams' Later Plays''. Associated University Presses. London. 1999. * Spoto, Donald. ''The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams''. Da Capo Press. Reprint. 1997. . * Williams, Tennessee. ''Memoirs''. Doubleday. Print. 1975. . * Williams, Dakin. ''His Brother's Keeper: The Life and Murder of Tennessee Williams''. Dakin's Corner Press. First Edition. Print. 1983.


External links


Tennessee Williams Collection
an
Research Guide
as well a
Kate Medina Collection of Tennessee Williams
at the
Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...
,
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

Tennessee Williams Papers at Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Fred W. Todd Tennessee Williams Collection
an
Tennessee Williams Pathfinder
at the Historic New Orleans Collection
Tennessee Williams manuscripts, 1972–1974
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, in the Lincoln Center complex on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated between the Metropolitan O ...

Tennessee Williams collection
fro
Special Collections, University of Delaware Library

''The Paris Review'' interview
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