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03/26/2005: Significant Days in American Letters:
Today is the 94th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams in Columbus, Mississippi. While Williams was still young, his family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and Williams spent some time at both the University of Missouri and at Washington University in St. Louis before finally graduating from the University of Iowa in 1938. His first play to receive a stage production, Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay, was produced in Memphis in 1935 (while Williams was working for a shoe company in St. Louis in between his stints at Mizzou and Washington University).
At Washington University while I was an undergraduate there, Williams was best known for having [sarcasm]the same high regard for that institution that I do for Nortwestern University's law school[/sarcasm], and the fact that Williams spent time there was something that wasn't mentioned much, if at all (I think I had long since graduated before I learned about it); apparently Williams had actually made a few references, none flattering, to Washington University in some of his works, resulting in the University downplaying its relationship to Williams. Or that's the story I've since heard, anyway.
Len on 03.26.05 @ 10:31 AM CST
