Tennessee Williams (born Thomas Lanier Williams on March 26, 1911) was (he second child of a genteel southern belle and a traveling salesman who came from a long line of frontiersmen and glib politicians. Sickly and weakened by a life-threatening bout with diphtheria, the quiet child preferred books to sports, earning him the scornful nickname "'Miss Nancy" from his robust father. Williams spent his early childhood in Tennessee in the rectory of his maternal grandfather, an Episcopal minister, mostly in the company of his older sister Rose and his domineering mother. Edwina. The conflict between his puritan maternal family and the cavalier sensuality of his father's side of the family warred within him for the rest of his life. This duality fueled his art with tension and plagued his life with bouts of mental breakdowns, addictions, and depression.

Williams's art reflected the emotional currents of his life: guilt...