-
Birth
Tennessee Williams was born in 1911 in Columbus Mississippi,US -
Period: to
Biographi
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. -
Period: to
Childhood
When he whas a child suffered a case of diphetria wich nearly ended his life.
He attended Soldan High School, and later he studied at University City High School. At age 16, Williams won third prizewith the essay "Can a Good Wife Be a Good Sport?"
A year later, his short story "The Vengeance of Nitocris" was published in the August 1928 issue of the magazine Weird Tales. -
Career
In the late 1930s, Williams started as caretaker on a chicken ranch in California.
In 1939, with the help of his agent, he was awarded a $1,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in recognition of his play Battle of Angels.
Using some of the funds,he moved to New Orleans to write for the Works Progress Administration , a federally funded program to put people back to work and which helped many artists, musicians and writers survive during the Great Depression. -
Later Years
The 1960s were a difficult time for Williams. His work received poor reviews and he start with alcohol and drugs.
In 1969 his brother hospitalized him. Upon his release, Williams got right back to work. He churned out several new plays as well as Memoirs in 1975, which told the story of his life and his afflictions. -
Death
On February 25, 1983, Williams was found dead in his suite at the Hotel Elysée in New York at age 71. The Chief Medical Examiner of New York City reported that Williams had choked to death from inhaling the plastic cap of a nasal spray dispenser.
