The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

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Biographical information

Tennessee Williams was born on March 26, 1911. He was the second child of Edwina and Cornelius Coffin Williams. His father was a shoe salesman who spent most of his time away from home. Edwina was a “southern belle” she was snobbish and her behavior was neurotic. As a child, Williams suffered from diphtheria which almost ended his life. Williams attended Soldan High School, a setting he referred to in The Glass Menagerie. Later, he attended University City High School. He then attended the University of Missouri. (Tennessee)

In the late 1930s the young playwright struggled to have his work accepted. During the winter of 1944–45, his "memory play" The Glass Menagerie was successfully produced in Chicago garnering good reviews. It moved to New York where it became an instant and enormous hit during its long Broadway run. Between 1948 and 1959, seven of his plays were performed on Broadway: Summer and Smoke (1948), The Rose Tattoo (1951), Camino Real (1953), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Orpheus Descending (1957), Garden District (1958), and Sweet Bird of Youth (1959). By 1959 he had earned two Pulitzer Prizes, three New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, three Donaldson Awards, and a Tony Award. On February 25, 1983, Williams was found dead in his room at the Elysee Hotel in New York at age 71. According to the medical examiner, Williams died from choking on the cap from a bottle of eye drops he used. It was said that his drug usage suppressed his gag reflex. Forensic detective and expert Michael Baden reviewed the medical files in regard to Williams's death, and stated that the results showed that Williams died of a drug and alcohol overdose, not from choking. (Tennessee)

Historical Info...

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Works Cited

Bloom, Harold, Frank Durham, and Nancy M. Tishcler. Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2007. Google Books. Web.

"Telling It Like It Isn’t." Tennessee Williams’s “The Glass Menagerie,” review: The New Yorker. Tennessee Williams’s “The Glass Menagerie,” review: The New Yorker,n.d.Web.12January2014.http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/theatre/2010/04/05/100405crth_theatre_lahr?currentPage=1.

Debusscher, Gilbert. "Tennessee Williams's Dramatic Charade--Gilbert Debusscher." Tennessee Williams's Dramatic Charade--Gilbert Debusscher. n.p., n.d. Web. 12 January 2014. http://www.tennesseewilliamsstudies.org/archives/2000/4debusscher.htm.

"Tennessee Lanier Williams." 2014. The Biography Channel website. Jan 22 2014, 07:15 http://www.biography.com/people/tennessee-williams-9532952.

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