They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at � Elysian Fields..

On December 3, 1947, a play called A Streetcar Named Desire opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York City. The story of an unstable woman named Blanche Dubois whose mind still dwells in the antebellum days of the American South, the play would win the 1947 Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics' Circle award. In 1951, the film adaptation would be nominated for an unprecedented 12 Academy Awards. It would also propel its young male lead reprising his theater role of Stanley Kowalski, into stardom en route to becoming an acting legend. His name was Marlon Brando.



Tennessee Williams is one of the great playwrights of the western world. During his lifetime he wrote more then 70 plays, including 30 full length works, 3 novels and several collections of short stories and poetry. His writings are an echo of his own experiences: growing up in a culture clinging to its past, a troubled family, being a homosexual. His works include The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly Last Summer and Sweet Bird of Youth. A Streetcar Named Desire is widely considered to be his greatest work.



This placemark set includes places and information related to A Streetcar Named Desire, including the route of the Desire streetcar line. A link to an original trailer for the film is also included. In addition, it presents numerous locations/information of importance in the life of Tennessee Williams. ( Please note however that it is not intended to be a comprehensive biography of Williams.)

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A significant reference source for this placemark set was:

"Tennessee Williams." Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography: The New Consciousness, 1941-1968. Gale Research, 1987.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center . Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2006.

An informative website regarding the play can be found at Spark Notes.

Thanks for a great and informative post LuciaM. It definitely deserves a 5 globe rating.

Why, thank you very much! This actually started as a quiz item for the Fun & Games forum (related to the streetcar route) but then it expanded a bit.
I read most of his plays years ago, but knew very little about his life. The way he died was certainly singular!

Lucia, thank you! Excellent post, well laid out - these need to serve as examples of how to do it right.

As usual, Lucia, your posts set the standard.

What a post should look like