Family Group Sheet
NameThomas Lanier “Tennessee” Williams, 7C1R
Birth26 Mar 1911, Columbus, Mississippi
Death25 Feb 1983, New York City, New York
FatherCornelius Coffin Williams (1879-1957)
MotherEdwina Estelle Dakin (1884-1980)
Notes for Thomas Lanier “Tennessee” Williams
He is most well known under the pseudonym Tennessee Williams. Here is what the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1972 edition, has to say about him:
“WILLIAMS, TENNESSEE (THOMAS LANIER WILLIAMS) (1911- ): U. S. writer, achieved his principle success as a dramatist. He was born in Columbus, Miss. on March 26, 1911 (not 1914, the year sometimes given), according to baptismal records of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Columbus, where his grandfather was rector. During his boyhood, his family moved to St. Louis; he later attended the University of Missouri and Washington University in St. Louis and received a B.A. degree from the University of Iowa in 1938. Williams began writing in childhood and tried fiction, poetry and drama. His first public recognition came in 1944 with the successful production of The Glass Menagerie. He won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award four times – for The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and The Night of the Iguana (1962); he won the Pulitzer prize twice – for A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Other plays include The Rose Tattoo (1950) and The Two Character Play (1967).
His characters, always theatrically exciting, range from the pretentiously genteel to the crude and ruthless, from poor to rich. Yet one thing they have in common – they are psychologically sick, entrapped in a world indifferent to them and uncomprehended by them. At their worst, an inner bestial violence drives them to destroy their fellow men and themselves. At their best, they are driven to cling pathetically together in what Williams appears to consider the only remaining bond of sympathetic communication – sex. For such characters, no real hope can be offered, for they can only react, not act. What Williams with his poetic language does afford them – and the rest of mankind – is not anger, but compassion for their all but desperate plight.”
The excellent 1995 biography by Lyle Leverich95 contains a genealogical chart on pages viii to ix, showing not only his descent from Valentine Sevier and Joannah Goad, but also many of his other ancestors. The chart shows only years of birth and death, though, without locations.
“WILLIAMS, TENNESSEE (THOMAS LANIER WILLIAMS) (1911- ): U. S. writer, achieved his principle success as a dramatist. He was born in Columbus, Miss. on March 26, 1911 (not 1914, the year sometimes given), according to baptismal records of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Columbus, where his grandfather was rector. During his boyhood, his family moved to St. Louis; he later attended the University of Missouri and Washington University in St. Louis and received a B.A. degree from the University of Iowa in 1938. Williams began writing in childhood and tried fiction, poetry and drama. His first public recognition came in 1944 with the successful production of The Glass Menagerie. He won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award four times – for The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and The Night of the Iguana (1962); he won the Pulitzer prize twice – for A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Other plays include The Rose Tattoo (1950) and The Two Character Play (1967).
His characters, always theatrically exciting, range from the pretentiously genteel to the crude and ruthless, from poor to rich. Yet one thing they have in common – they are psychologically sick, entrapped in a world indifferent to them and uncomprehended by them. At their worst, an inner bestial violence drives them to destroy their fellow men and themselves. At their best, they are driven to cling pathetically together in what Williams appears to consider the only remaining bond of sympathetic communication – sex. For such characters, no real hope can be offered, for they can only react, not act. What Williams with his poetic language does afford them – and the rest of mankind – is not anger, but compassion for their all but desperate plight.”
The excellent 1995 biography by Lyle Leverich95 contains a genealogical chart on pages viii to ix, showing not only his descent from Valentine Sevier and Joannah Goad, but also many of his other ancestors. The chart shows only years of birth and death, though, without locations.
