Windham, Donald

Donald Windham, author, born in Atlanta, Georgia, resided mainly in New York (N.Y.). Sandy Campbell, actor, publisher, and former editor of "The New Yorker.

American writer.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1920, Donald Windham left home in 1938 for New York City and the writing life. There he became friends with the young Tennessee Williams, with whom he would collaborate in writing a play, You Touched Me, based on the D.H. Lawrence short story. The play was mounted on broadway in 1945 after Williams' success with The Glass Menagerie. This achievement allowed Windham to quit his job as editor of Dance Index and to continue working on the novel which was to become Dog Star. Dog Star, completed during the first of Windham's many trips to Italy, received critical acclaim in England and was considered by Thomas Mann as the finest American novel of 1950; however, the novel met with little success in the United States. During the 1950s, Windham attained little success at home. His stories were published in such European magazines as Horizon, Paris Review, and Botteghe Oscure. With the aid of his life-long companion, actor-writer Sandy Campbell, Windham would have several pieces of his work including The Hitchhiker privately published. By the end of the decade, Windham's fortunes had turned. The New Yorker published a suite of his stories. Several would later provide the foundation to his memoir Emblems of Conduct. In 1960, Windham received the prestigious Guggenheim fellowship for fiction. The same year saw the publication of Warm Country, a collection of Windham's stories most of which had been published originally outside the U.S. Windham went on to write four more novels and publish memoirs of his friendships with Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote. In recent years, Windham's precise prose has garnered new interest. A new generation of readers has begun to discover his "admirable talent." Donald Windham - a full-length portrait of the writer - University of Georgia, Hargrett Library exhibit page http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/pexhibit/wind97.html (Retrieved April 6, 2009)

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1920, Donald Windham left home in 1938 for New York City and the writing life. There he became friends with the young Tennessee Williams, with whom he would collaborate in writing a play, You Touched Me, based on the D.H. Lawrence short story. The play was mounted on broadway in 1945 after Williams' success with The Glass Menagerie. This achievement allowed Windham to quit his job as editor of Dance Index and to continue working on the novel which was to become Dog Star. Dog Star, completed during the first of Windham's many trips to Italy, received critical acclaim in England and was considered by Thomas Mann as the finest American novel of 1950; however, the novel met with little success in the United States. During the 1950s, Windham attained little success at home. His stories were published in such European magazines as Horizon, Paris Review, and Botteghe Oscure. With the aid of his life-long companion, actor-writer Sandy Campbell, Windham would have several pieces of his work including The Hitchhiker privately published. By the end of the decade, Windham's fortunes had turned. The New Yorker published a suite of his stories. Several would later provide the foundation to his memoir Emblems of Conduct. In 1960, Windham received the prestigious Guggenheim fellowship for fiction. The same year saw the publication of Warm Country, a collection of Windham's stories most of which had been published originally outside the U.S. Windham went on to write four more novels and publish memoirs of his friendships with Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote. In recent years, Windham's precise prose has garnered new interest. A new generation of readers has begun to discover his "admirable talent." Donald Windham - a full-length portrait of the writer - University of Georgia, Hargrett Library exhibit page http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/pexhibit/wind97.html (Retrieved April 6, 2009)

Thomas Lanier Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi, on March 26, 1911, the first son and second child of Cornelius Coffin and Edwina Dakin Williams. His mother, the daughter of a minister, was of genteel upbringing, while his father, a shoe salesman, came from a prestigious Tennessee family which included the state's first governor and first senator. The family lived for several years in Clarksdale, Mississippi, before moving to St. Louis in 1918. At the age of 16, he encountered his first brush with the publishing world when he won third prize and received $5 for an essay, "Can a Good Wife Be a Good Sport?," in Smart Set. A year later, he published "The Vengeance of Nitocris" in Weird Tales. In 1929, he entered the University of Missouri. His success there was dubious, and in 1931 he began work for a St. Louis shoe company. It was six years later when his first play, Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay, was produced in Memphis, in many respects the true beginning of his literary and stage career. Building upon the experience he gained with his first production, Williams had two of his plays, Candles to the Sun and The Fugitive Kind, produced by Mummers of St. Louis in 1937. After a brief encounter with enrollment at Washington University, St. Louis, he entered the University of Iowa and graduated in 1938. As the second World War loomed over the horizon, Williams found a bit of fame when he won the Group Theater prize of $100 for American Blues and received a $1,000 grant from the Authors' League of America in 1939. Battle of Angels was produced in Boston a year later. Near the close of the war in 1944, what many consider to be his finest play, The Glass Menagerie, had a very successful run in Chicago and a year later burst its way onto Broadway. Containing autobiographical elements from both his days in St. Louis as well as from his family's past in Mississippi, the play won the New York Drama Critics' Circle award as the best play of the season. Williams, at the age of 34, had etched an indelible mark among the public and among his peers. Following the critical acclaim over The Glass Menagerie, over the next eight years he found homes for A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke, A Rose Tattoo, and Camino Real on Broadway. Although his reputation on Broadway continued to zenith, particularly upon receiving his first Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for Streetcar, Williams reached a larger world-wide public in 1950 when The Glass Menagerie and again in 1951 when A Streetcar Named Desire were made into motion pictures. Williams had now achieved a fame few playwrights of his day could equal. Over the next thirty years, dividing his time between homes in Key West, New Orleans, and New York, his reputation continued to grow and he saw many more of his works produced on Broadway and made into films, including such works as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (for which he earned a second Pulitzer Prize in 1955), Orpheus Descending, and Night of the Iguana. There is little doubt that as a playwright, fiction writer, poet, and essayist, Williams helped transform the contemporary idea of the Southern literature. However, as a Southerner he not only helped to pave the way for other writers, but also helped the South find a strong voice in those auspices where before it had only been heard as a whisper. Williams died on February 24, 1983, at the Hotel Elysée in New York City. University of Mississippi English Dept. - Mississippi Writer's Page - Tennessee Williams http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/williams_tennessee/ (Retrieved September 28, 2009)

Donald Windham, born July 2, 1902 in Atlanta, was a 20th century novelist, editor, playwright, and short-story writer. He passed away on May 31, 2010.

Jordan Massee was a 20th century author, as well as a cousin and correspondent of Carson McCullers.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1920, Donald Windham left home in 1938 for New York City and the writing life. There he became friends with the young Tennessee Williams, with whom he would collaborate in writing a play, You Touched Me, based on the D.H. Lawrence short story. The play was mounted on broadway in 1945 after Williams' success with The Glass Menagerie. This achievement allowed Windham to quit his job as editor of Dance Index and to continue working on the novel which was to become Dog Star. Dog Star, completed during the first of Windham's many trips to Italy, received critical acclaim in England and was considered by Thomas Mann as the finest American novel of 1950; however, the novel met with little success in the United States. During the 1950s, Windham attained little success at home. His stories were published in such European magazines as Horizon, Paris Review, and Botteghe Oscure. With the aid of his life-long companion, actor-writer Sandy Campbell, Windham would have several pieces of his work including The Hitchhiker privately published. By the end of the decade, Windham's fortunes had turned. The New Yorker published a suite of his stories. Several would later provide the foundation to his memoir Emblems of Conduct. In 1960, Windham received the prestigious Guggenheim fellowship for fiction. The same year saw the publication of Warm Country, a collection of Windham's stories most of which had been published originally outside the U.S. Windham went on to write four more novels and publish memoirs of his friendships with Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote. In recent years, Windham's precise prose has garnered new interest. A new generation of readers has begun to discover his "admirable talent." Donald Windham - a full-length portrait of the writer - University of Georgia, Hargrett Library exhibit page http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/pexhibit/wind97.html (Retrieved April 6, 2009)

Thomas Lanier Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi, on March 26, 1911, the first son and second child of Cornelius Coffin and Edwina Dakin Williams. His mother, the daughter of a minister, was of genteel upbringing, while his father, a shoe salesman, came from a prestigious Tennessee family which included the state's first governor and first senator. The family lived for several years in Clarksdale, Mississippi, before moving to St. Louis in 1918. At the age of 16, he encountered his first brush with the publishing world when he won third prize and received $5 for an essay, "Can a Good Wife Be a Good Sport?," in Smart Set. A year later, he published "The Vengeance of Nitocris" in Weird Tales. In 1929, he entered the University of Missouri. His success there was dubious, and in 1931 he began work for a St. Louis shoe company. It was six years later when his first play, Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay, was produced in Memphis, in many respects the true beginning of his literary and stage career. Building upon the experience he gained with his first production, Williams had two of his plays, Candles to the Sun and The Fugitive Kind, produced by Mummers of St. Louis in 1937. After a brief encounter with enrollment at Washington University, St. Louis, he entered the University of Iowa and graduated in 1938. As the second World War loomed over the horizon, Williams found a bit of fame when he won the Group Theater prize of $100 for American Blues and received a $1,000 grant from the Authors' League of America in 1939. Battle of Angels was produced in Boston a year later. Near the close of the war in 1944, what many consider to be his finest play, The Glass Menagerie, had a very successful run in Chicago and a year later burst its way onto Broadway. Containing autobiographical elements from both his days in St. Louis as well as from his family's past in Mississippi, the play won the New York Drama Critics' Circle award as the best play of the season. Williams, at the age of 34, had etched an indelible mark among the public and among his peers. Following the critical acclaim over The Glass Menagerie, over the next eight years he found homes for A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke, A Rose Tattoo, and Camino Real on Broadway. Although his reputation on Broadway continued to zenith, particularly upon receiving his first Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for Streetcar, Williams reached a larger world-wide public in 1950 when The Glass Menagerie and again in 1951 when A Streetcar Named Desire were made into motion pictures. Williams had now achieved a fame few playwrights of his day could equal. Over the next thirty years, dividing his time between homes in Key West, New Orleans, and New York, his reputation continued to grow and he saw many more of his works produced on Broadway and made into films, including such works as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (for which he earned a second Pulitzer Prize in 1955), Orpheus Descending, and Night of the Iguana. There is little doubt that as a playwright, fiction writer, poet, and essayist, Williams helped transform the contemporary idea of the Southern literature. However, as a Southerner he not only helped to pave the way for other writers, but also helped the South find a strong voice in those auspices where before it had only been heard as a whisper. Williams died on February 24, 1983, at the Hotel Elysée in New York City. University of Mississippi English Dept. - Mississippi Writer's Page - Tennessee Williams http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/williams_tennessee/ (Retrieved September 28, 2009)

Capote, Truman (30 Sept. 1924-25 Aug. 1984), writer, was born Truman Streckfus Persons in New Orleans, the son of Arch Persons, a salesman and drifter, and sixteen-year-old Lillie Mae "Nina" Faulk. His parents' turbulent marriage dissolved when Truman was six. After his mother entered business colleges in Selma, Alabama, and Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1929, Truman--who had been neglected and psychologically abused--was relegated a year later to her distant cousins in Monroeville, Alabama, population 1,355. "This was a very strange household," he commented once. "It consisted of three elderly ladies and an elderly uncle. They were the people who had adopted my mother--her own parents had died when she was very young. I lived there until I was ten, and it was a very lonely life, and it was then that I became interested in writing" (Roy Newquist, Counterpoint [1964], p. 76). In Monroeville his chief companions were his childlike guardian Sook Faulk and the young and tomboyish Harper Lee, who in later life wrote the novel To Kill a Mockingbird and who in the 1960s assisted Truman by gathering facts for his documentary In Cold Blood (1965). American National Biography Online - Truman Capote http://www.anb.org (Retrieved September 29, 2009)

Donald Windham is a novelist from New York, N.Y.

Elizabeth Kornhauser is a curator at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn.