Q 01/05

What was Tennessee Williams's real first name?

A) Timothy

B) Theodore

C) Thomas

D) Terrence

Answer · why

C) Thomas

He was Thomas Lanier Williams III; the pen name came around 1939, a nod to his Southern accent and roots.

Q 02/05

In which state was Tennessee Williams born?

A) Mississippi

B) Tennessee

C) Missouri

D) Louisiana

Answer · why

A) Mississippi

He was born in Columbus and spent his early childhood in his grandfather's Episcopal rectory in Clarksdale.

Q 03/05

What was Williams's father's job?

A) Cotton broker in Memphis

B) Traveling shoe salesman

C) Mississippi riverboat pilot

D) Episcopal parish priest

Answer · why

B) Traveling shoe salesman

C. C. Williams was an alcoholic with a violent temper who scorned what he saw as his son's effeminacy.

Q 04/05

Which childhood illness nearly killed Williams and left him frail and housebound for a year?

A) Diphtheria

B) Scarlet fever

C) Tuberculosis

D) Polio

Answer · why

A) Diphtheria

His mother Edwina, trapped in an unhappy marriage, focused almost all her attention on her frail son.

Q 05/05

Tennessee Williams's family moved to which city when he was eight?

A) Chicago

B) St. Louis

C) Memphis

D) New Orleans

Answer · why

B) St. Louis

He later attended Soldan High School there, a setting he refers to in The Glass Menagerie.