Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire

Vassilis Manoussakis (University of the Peloponnese)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1947

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

In 1945, after several disappointments and theatrical flops, Tennessee Williams had his first great success with the play The Glass Menagerie, which won him his first Critics' Award. Having broken the jinx of Broadway, and having received the praise of the public and of the theatre critics alike, Tennessee Williams was now free to pursue his writing and prove to the theatre world that he was not merely a one-success writer but a playwright of world stature. He achieved that with a play which was originally called The Poker Night, and was later renamed A Streetcar Name Desire. It appeared on Broadway on December 3, 1947 and its cast was truly impressive: Jessica Tandy as the fragile Blanche Du Bois, one of the m…

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2087 words

Citation: Manoussakis, Vassilis. "A Streetcar Named Desire". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 March 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6955, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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