Thomas Lanier “Tennessee” Williams III was born on 26 March 1911, in Columbus, Mississippi. He enrolled for journalism at the University of Missouri in 1929, and began participating in various writing contests, submitting his stories, essays, and poems. Beauty is the Word (1930) was his first submitted play. It was followed by Hot Milk at Three in the Morning (1932). In 1944, The Glass Menagerie, a five-character memory play, premiered in Chicago. It was an instant hit and went on to become his first successful play. While The Glass Menagerie launched Williams as a successful playwright, A Streetcar Named Desire secured his position as a great one. Written in 1947, the play opened on Broadway in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on 3 December 1947, and closed on 17 December 1949. Williams’ other works include 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). These plays were performed on Broadway between 1948 and 1959. And later, many of them were made into motion pictures.