1911 – 26 March. Born Thomas Lanier Williams III in Columbus, Mississippi, to Cornelius Coffin and Edwina Dakin Williams. (Sister Rose was born Nov. 17, 1909)

 

1911-1918 – Tom and Rose live with their mother and her parents, the Rev. and Mrs. Walter Dakin, in the Episcopal rectory of various southern towns, as Tom’s father is other absent as a traveling shoe salesman. At five, in Clarksdale, Miss., Tom has diphtheria and Bright’s Disease, leaving him an invalid for two years. When he regained his health, his boyish rambunctiousness was gone, replaced by a new shyness. He learned to escape through his rich imagination.

 

1918 – Family moves to St. Louis, Missouri to live with father who was made branch manager of International Shoe Company. Tom fears father, who taunts him, calling him “Miss Nancy.”

 

1919 – 21 February. Brother Walter Dakin Williams is born.

 

1924-26 – After his mother gives him a second-hand typewriter, he writes his first story “Isolated,” for junior high-school newspaper, and later, travel articles for the high school paper; finds his first girlfriend, Hazel Kramer.

 

1927 – Wins third prize ($5) from the magazine Smart Set for his answer to the question “Can a Good Wife Be a Good Sport?” Also wins a prize for a movie review of Stella Dallas.

 

1928 – July. Short story “The Vengeance of Nitocris” is published in magazine Weird Tales. Tours Europe with his maternal grandfather.

 

1929 – enters the University of Missouri in September and joins a fraternity. Becomes the first freshman ever to receive honorable mention in a contest, for his play Beauty Is the Word.

 

1932 – Father withdraws him from the university after the winter semester, presumably for failing ROTC; begins working at International Shoe Company and spends his nights writing.

 

1936 – Autumn. Sees Alla Nazimova perform in Ibsen’s Ghosts and is inspired to be a playwright. Enrolls in Washington University, St. Louis, where is publishes poetry in the college magazine and wins prizes. Begins literary association with Clark Mills.

 

1937 – First full-length plays are produced by amateur group; transfers to the University of Iowa, where he studies playwriting and production.

 

1938 – August. Graduates with BA degree in English from University of Iowa.

 

1939 – Lives briefly in several places, including New Orleans in the French Quarter; first extended homosexual experiences; first uses the name “Tennessee” as the author of “The Field of Blue Children,” published in Story magazine.

Writes plays sent to Audrey Wood, literary agent, who then becomes his agent

 

1940 – January. Moves to New York to enroll in an advance playwriting seminar taught by John Gassner at the New School of Social Research. Travels to Memphis and to Provincetown, where he has his first sustained homosexual affair.

30 December. Battle of Angels opens in Boston but quickly closes after a censorship controversy; is revised as Orpheus Descending in 1957.

 

1941-42 – Lives in a variety of locations, including Key West and New Orleans, and works at a number of jobs. Starts the story “Portrait of a Girl in Glass,” which will be developed into The Glass Menagerie.

 

1943 – Spring. Returns to St. Louis. Sister Rose is institutionalized for schizophrenia and undergoes prefrontal lobotomy.

April. Audrey Wood gets him a job as a scriptwriter for MGM and he moves to California.

May. While writing a film script for Lana Turner, develops “Portrait of a Girl in Glass” into a screenplay, “The Gentleman Caller.”

October. Loses his Hollywood job.

 

1944 – 6 January. Grandmother dies.

Portrait of a Madonna opens in Los Angeles.

 

1945 – January or February. Starts working on A Streetcar Named Desire.

31 March. The Glass Menagerie opens on Broadway and wins the New York Drama Critic’s Circle, Donaldson, and Sidney Howard Memorial awards.

 

1946 – A group of plays are published.

Summer. Beginning of friendship with Carson McCullers.

 

1947 – 8 July. Summer and Smoke opens in Dallas.

3 December. A Streetcar Named Desire opens in New York; wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Donaldson and New York Drama Critics’ Circle awards, the first work ever to win all three.

Meets Frank Merlo.

 

1948 – Visits Europe; first collection of fiction published.

6 October. Summer and Smoke opens in New York. This same month, Frank Merlo moves in with him, the beginning of a 14-year relationship. He moves Rose to a private clinic.

 

1950 – A novel, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, is published and the film of The Glass Menagerie is released.

1951 – 3 February. The Rose Tattoo opens in New York and wins a Tony award. Film version of A Streetcar Named Desire is released.

 

1952 – Streetcar film version wins the New York Film Critics’ Circle Award. Elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

 

1954 – Publishes Hard Candy: A Book of Stories and works on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

 

1955 – 14 February. Maternal grandfather dies.

24 March. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opens in New York, where it runs for 694 performances, winning the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle and Donaldson awards.

Film version of Rose Tattoo is released.

 

1956 – Film Baby Doll opens in New York (one of two works enjoyed by Tennessee’s father). First collection of poems published.

Spring. Relationship with Frank Merlo deteriorating.

Summer. In Rome, verging on a nervous breakdown.

 

1957 – Orpheus Descending open in New York.

May. Father dies

June. Starts psychoanalysis with Dr. Lawrence Kubie.

 

1958 – 7 January. Garden District (Suddenly Last Summer and Something Unspoken) opens off-Broadway and in London.

Film version of Cat released; breaks off analysis with Dr. Kubie and leaves for Europe.

 

1959 – 15 January. The Rose Tattoo opens in London.

10 March. Sweet Bird of Youth opens in New York.

April. Goes to Cuba, where he meets Ernest Hemingway and Fidel Castro.

Screen version of Suddenly Last Summer is released.

 

1961 – The Night of the Iguana premieres, and he later wins his fourth New York Drama Critics’ Circle award.

 

1963 – September. Frank Merlo dies of cancer. Williams enters period of depression.

 

1964-68 – Several more plays produced, and film versions of some released; stories published.

 

1969 – January. Partly at the instigation of his brother Dakin, he is baptized as a Roman Catholic in Key West.

September-December. Enters Barnes Hospital, St. Louis, for psychiatric care.

 

1970 – Interviewed by David Frost.

 

1971 – Collections of plays published; Audrey Wood is replaced by Bill Barnes.

Other productions and openings.

 

1972 – Williams makes his acting debut as Doc in Small Craft Warnings, in a successful off-Broadway run.

 

1973 – Awarded the first Centennial Medal of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Notorious Playboy interview.

 

1975 – Receives Medal of Honor for Literature, National Arts Club. Second novel published and also his Memoirs, which deals openly with his homosexuality. Other openings and revivals.

 

1976-82 – Continued openings, revivals, film releases, and a number of distinguished awards and other honors.

 

1980 – Mother dies.

 

1983 – 24 or 25 February. Dies at the Hotel Elysee, New York City, from choking on a cap from a medicine bottle.

5 March. Funeral at St. Louis Cathedral.

 

 

 

Good chronology of all produced plays along with other information about Williams at www.curtainup.com/williams.html