The Breeze February 2015

Having returned to school at the Washington
University in St. Louis and later University of Iowa,
Wil-liams graduated with a BA English degree.
Speaking of his early days as a playwright and
referring to a collaborative play called Cairo,
Shanghai, Bombay!, produced while he was a part
of an amateur sum-mer theater group in Memphis,
Tennessee, Williams wrote, “The laughter ...
enchanted me. Then and there the theatre and I
found each other for better and for worse. I know
it’s the only thing that saved my
life.” It is ironic that the very thing
that he loved also drove him to selfdestruction.
In 1939 he re-ceived
a $1,000 grant from Rockefeller
Foundation. This Gaining notice he
was hired by MGM in Holly-wood.
In 1945 he became an instant hit in
Chicago and New York with his play
The Glass Menagerie, which won the
New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award
for best play of the season.
The huge success of his next play,
A Streetcar Named Desire, in
1947 secured his reputation as a
great playwright. Although widely
celebrated and increasingly wealthy,
he was still restless and insecure
in the grip of fears that he would
not be able to replicate his success.
During the late 1940s and 1950s, Williams
began to travel widely with his
partner, often spending summers
in Europe. To stimulate his writ-ing
he moved often, to various cities
including New York, New Orleans,
Key West, Rome, Barcelona, and
London. Williams wrote, “Only
some radical change can divert the
downward course of my spirit, some
startling new place or people to
arrest the drift, the drag.”
By 1959, he had reached world-wide
audiences and seven of his plays
were performed on Broadway and
he had earned two Pulitzer Prizes,
three New York Drama Critics’ Circle
Awards, three Donaldson Awards
and a Tony. Eight of his plays were
adapted to the wide screen.
The 1960s and 1970s brought
personal turmoil and theatrical
failures. The quality of his work suffered from
his increasing alcohol and drug consumption as
well as occasional poor choices of collaborators.
Consumed by depression and in and out of
treatment facilities Williams spiraled downward.
The relent-lessly negative press notices wore
down his spirit. His last play in 1982, A House Not
Meant To Stand, ran for only 40 performances.
Williams said, “I’ve been working very hard since
1969 to make an artistic comeback…”there is no
release short of death”, and “I want to warn you,
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