35 Facts About Tennessee Williams

1. Tennessee Williams left Washington University for the University of Iowa in 1937, and he finally graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1938—the same year a radio adaptation of Me, Vashya hit airways.

2. Tennessee Williams met and fell in love with Frank Merlo in 1947 while living in New Orleans.

3. In 1927, Tennessee Williams got his first taste of literary fame when he took third place in a national essay contest sponsored by The Smart Set magazine.

4. Tennessee Williams wrote a multitude of letters that he never sent.

5. In 1929, Tennessee Williams enrolled at the University of Missouri to study journalism.

6. Tennessee Williams described his childhood in Mississippi as pleasant and happy.

7. Tennessee Williams was born and raised in Detroit, MI, where he worked as a middle school teacher and coach in Detroit public schools from 1970 to 1980.

8. Tennessee Williams was immensely proud that he proved the doubters wrong.

9. Tennessee Williams paid for individual classroom libraries, and each year student-athletes throw a Christmas party for the kids and host sports clinics.

10. Tennessee Williams owns the longest active winning streak of any Division I team.

11. Tennessee Williams is not really an exception on this Tennessee team, though, and that's what makes the Vols exceptional.

12. Tennessee Williams went up against Kentucky-bound Bam Adebayo, now of the Miami Heat, in high school games.

13. Tennessee Williams submitted to injections by Dr Max Jacobson—known popularly as Dr Feelgood—who used increasing amounts of amphetamines to overcome his depression.

14. Tennessee Williams moved often to stimulate his writing, living in New York, New Orleans, Key West, Rome, Barcelona, and London.

15. Tennessee Williams lived for a time in New Orleans' French Quarter, including 722 Toulouse Street, the setting of his 1977 play Vieux Carre.

16. Tennessee Williams often worked on weekends and late into the night.

17. Tennessee Williams set a goal of writing one story a week.

18. Tennessee Williams wrote The Parade, or Approaching the End of a Summer when he was 29, and worked on it sporadically throughout his life.

19. Tennessee Williams is honored with a star on the St Louis Walk of Fame.

20. In late 2009, Tennessee Williams was inducted into the Poets' Corner at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York.

21. Tennessee Williams left his literary rights to The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, an Episcopal school, in honor of his maternal grandfather, Walter Dakin, an alumnus of the university.

22. Tennessee Williams wrote in his will in 1972: "I, Thomas Lanier Williams, being in sound mind upon this subject, and having declared this wish repeatedly to my close friends-do hereby state my desire to be buried at sea.

23. On February 25, 1983, Tennessee Williams was found dead at age 71 in his suite at the Hotel Elysee in New York.

24. Tennessee Williams described Carroll's behavior as a combination of "sweetness" and "beastliness".

25. Tennessee Williams had deep affection for Carroll and respect for what he saw as the younger man's talents.

26. Tennessee Williams submitted to injections by Dr Max Jacobson—known popularly as Dr Feelgood—who used increasing amounts of amphetamines to overcome his depression.

27. Tennessee Williams feared that, like his sister Rose, he would fall into insanity.

28. Tennessee Williams spent the spring and summer of 1948 in Rome in the company of an Italian teenager, called "Rafaello" in Williams' Memoirs.

29. Tennessee Williams said, "I've been working very hard since 1969 to make an artistic comeback.

30. Tennessee Williams lived for a time in New Orleans' French Quarter; first at 722 Toulouse Street, the setting of his 1977 play Vieux Carre.

31. In 1936, Tennessee Williams enrolled at Washington University in St Louis; while there, he wrote the play Me, Vashya.

32. Tennessee Williams set himself a goal of writing one story a week, working on Saturday and Sunday, often late into the night.

33. Tennessee Williams was bored by his classes and distracted by unrequited love for a girl.

34. Tennessee Williams regarded what he thought was his son's effeminacy with disdain.

35. Tennessee Williams wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs.