Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was born on March 26, 1911 and died on February 25, 1983 at the age of 71. He was an American writer who mainly wrote plays in American theater, but he also wrote different works of literature including short stories, novels, and poetry. Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi to his parents Edwina and Cornelius Coffin Williams. He was the younger of two children, his sister Rose being the oldest. As a child Williams suffered from dieses called diphtheria which left him weak and confined to his house for almost year where his mother watched after him. This put a hardship on her marriage and resulted in a separation from the two parents.
Williams was known for writing about his personal family problems in much of his literature. This is shown numerous times within his play The Glass Menagerie. Similarly to the father in the play The Glass Menagerie William’s father was a traveling shoe salesman who spent most of his time away from home, where the father in the play worked a job at a phone company that kept him far from home and allowed him to travel. Williams’s father left him and his mother when Thomas became sick, their marriage was unhappy and Cornelius was an abusive husband. Much like the father in the play who left the family and the only thing he left them with was a life size photo of him and a post card saying hello and goodbye. William’s real life father was also known to be an alcoholic/hard drinker similarly to the character Tom Wingfield from the play. Another character Williams portrayed from his real life was His mother, Edwina, who had the attitude similar to a 'Southern belle', who was snobby and whose behavior could be neurotic and hysterical. Much like
Amanda’s character who was very southern and obsessed with gentleman callers and making sure Laura was to find one. Another clear similarity was Williams’s name, Thomas, nicknamed by his mother to Tom, much like the character in the play.
In his later life Williams attended high school at Soldan High School which his characters Tom and Laura both also attended in the play. He was very close to his sister