Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier Williams (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), better known by the pen name Tennessee Williams, was a noted playwright. The name "Tennessee" was a name he adopted from 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 partner, Frank Merlo), received the Tony Award for best play. Genre critics maintain that Williams writes in the Southern Gothic style.

References

• The Kindness of Strangers, Donald Spoto
• Memoirs, Tennessee Williams
• Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams, Lyle Leverich
• His Brother's Keeper: The Life and Murder of Tennessee Williams, Dakin Williams