Outstanding playwright, poet and American novelist, Tennessee Williams (Columbus, Mississippi, 1911 - New York, 1983) was winner of the Pulitzer Theater Prize twice: in 1948 thanks to A Streetcar Named Desire and in 1955 by The Cat on the Roof of zinc. His real name was Thomas Lanier Williams and he was the son of a mother who descended from a good southern family and a shoe merchant with problems of alcoholism and violence with his family. At the age of twelve, he suffered an almost fatal diphtheria that put him on the bed and pushed him to write early. A childhood, therefore, traumatic in many ways and in which Tennessee took refuge in the love of her sister, Rose, who suffered from mental problems. The influence of this family experience and the environments of his native south is often evident in the plots of his stories. Tennessee creates psychologically fragile characters whose form of rebellion consists of a desperate attempt to break their loneliness, often through desire and tortuous relationships. The recurrent themes of his work are incomprehension, frustration, homosexuality and the guilt of the individual in a cruel and ruthless world. Many of his works are known for his film adaptations, including: Suddenly, last summer; The night of the iguana; Sweet bird of youth; The tattooed rose; and Summer and smoke.