Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams was born on March 26, 1911, in    Columbus, Mississippi. He was Mr. Cornelius and Mrs. Edwina Williams second of three children.

He got his first taste of literary fame in 1927 when he placed third in a national essay contest. In 1929, he was enrolled at the University of Missouri where he decided to become a playwright after seeing a production of Ghosts. He was unable to complete his degree because his father could no longer afford to pay his tuition.

Williams went back to school to finish his degree. In 1937, Mummers of St. Louis produced his first two plays. In 1938, he graduated from the University of Iowa, and after failing to find work in Chicago, he moved to New Orleans and changed his name to "Tennessee."

Williams received a $1,000 Rockefeller Grant in 1939, and a year later, Battle of Angels was produced in Boston. The Glass Menagerie, considered to be his best play, hit Broadway in 1945. The play is about Tom, his disabled sister, Laura, and their controlling mother Amanda. Most believe that his plays were based on his family relationships. Elia Kazan, director of several Williams’ plays, said, "Everything in his life is in his plays, and everything in his plays is in his life." The Glass Menagerie won the New York Critics’ Circle Award for best play of the season.

Williams followed up his first major success with more Broadway hits including A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke, A Rose Tattoo, and Camino Real. He received his first Pulitzer in 1948 for A Streetcar Named Desire. He received worldwide recognition when A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie were made into motion pictures in 1950 and 1951. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (which earned him a second Pulitzer in 1955), Orpheus Descending, and Night of the Iguana were also made into motion pictures.

 On February 24, 1983, Williams choked to death on a bottle cap at his New York City residence. During his life, he wrote twenty-five full length plays, produced dozens of short stories and screenplays, two novels, a novella, sixty short stories, over one hundred poems, and an autobiography. Among other awards, he won two Pulitzer Prizes and four New York Drama Critics Circle Awards.