In this episode of pplpod, we explore the turbulent genius of Tennessee Williams, the man who, alongside Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, stands as one of the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama. Born Thomas Lanier Williams III, he adopted his pen name to acknowledge his Southern roots, eventually mining his own dysfunctional family history to revolutionize the theater.

We discuss:

• The Autobiographical Art: How Williams used writing to break free from his puritan upbringing and an unhappy home life, modeling characters in The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire after his mother, his violent father, and himself.
• The Tragic Muse: The heartbreaking story of his sister Rose, whose diagnosis of schizophrenia and subsequent lobotomy hau ...