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Williams Tennessee 1911 - 1983 (72)

Make voyages. Attempt them. There's nothing else.


QUOTES

The Glass
Menagerie

A Streetcar

Named Desire



Tennessee Williams (real name Thomas Lannier Williams, 1911-1983) was an American playwright, one of the most important of his time. He was born on March 26, 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi, the second of three children in a troubled family. His parents were estranged and constantly in conflict as his father, a shoemaker, was often drank, had extramarital affairs and gradually became brutal, while his mother, the daughter of a minister from an aristocratic family, was a refined, puritanical. The father clearly showed his preference for the eldest son while he considered Tennessee feminine, the mother was lost in her neurotic impasses, his sister, with whom he had the closest relationship, developed schizophrenia and her parents agreed to lobotomize her. . Tennessee never forgave them for that.

At the age of 5 he was bedridden for 2 years due to paralysis of the lower limbs and his mother pushed him to make up stories to spend his time. Growing up, his father pressured him to work in a shoe factory, but he had already decided to pursue a career in literature.

He studied journalism in St. Louis where his classmates gave him the nickname Tennessee because of his accent, which he adopted. In 1938 he graduated from the University of Iowa and moved to Louisiana, where he continued to write plays. He won recognition and great success with "The Glass Menagerie" which is inspired by his family.

In 1947 came even greater success with the project "Bus of desire". At the same time he had an affair and began living with an Italian until his death in 1963. It seems that this affair balanced him and protected him from his appeal to alcohol, drugs and depression. Until 1960 he enjoyed great success with works such as "Suddenly last summer", "Sweet bird of youth", "Adaptation period", "The night of the iguana". Then followed the descent.

In 1969 he was locked up in a psychiatric hospital for a few months due to his depression while he was completely addicted to drugs and alcohol. When he was released, he made an effort to write again, but he did not manage to approach the success of his previous works; the failures follow one another, both in his professional and personal life. On February 25, 1983, he was found dead in a room at the Elysee Hotel in New York, with a cork stuck in his neck.