Columbus Mississippi Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of Tennessee Williams' Birth

Columbus to recreate Tennessee Williams' world. (Connecticut Post, 3/23/2011)

Excerpt:   Tennessee Williams was born 100 years ago in Columbus, and this week the town is celebrating with a birthday party.

A festival there will immerse visitors in the historical context of his works, which include "The Glass Menagerie" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

Columbus is just one of many places that served as home to the great American playwright, and all of them celebrate his memory. Festivals in honor of his birthday, March 26, will be held this month from European universities to the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Even though Williams' family left Columbus when he was just 3, scholars say the town had a major impact on his plays.


Tennessee Williams’s 100th Birthday, Marked in Columbus, Miss. (New York Times, 3/11/2011)

Excerpt: Williams would have turned 100 this month, and towns and cities around the country are hosting fetes in his honor, but none more fittingly than Columbus, the playwright’s birthplace and his home until age 7. This year, the birthday celebration (March 24 to 27) coincides in part with the town’s Spring Pilgrimage (March 28 to April 9), the event that Ms. Caradine referred to, which is traditionally held during the azalea bloom.

Williams-themed festivities will include an exhibition of playbill and movie paraphernalia related to his stage and screen work at the Columbus-Lowndes Library (317 Seventh Street North); tours of St. Paul’s Episcopal (318 College Street), where his grandfather preached (don’t miss the stained-glass windows mentioned in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”); and performances of one of his more obscure plays, “Strangest Kind of Romance,” at the Rosensweig Arts Center (501 Main Street).