How did Thomas Lanier Williams III become Tennessee Williams the playwright? What in his apprentice years predicts the masterworks which became classics of the American stage? While we cannot explain his genius, we can trace elements in his nature, nurture, and circumstance which fostered its expression. Even as a small child Tom showed a gift for drama, entertaining the grown-ups in the family with stories which grew increasingly exciting as he told them. He would also act out the cartoons from the newspaper. Reared in the rectory of his grandfather, the Reverend Walter Dakin, he felt both the prestige and burden of being called “the preacher's boy.” His parents were virtually separated, his traveling-salesman father appearing only often enough to upset the tranquil household and frighten his children. His mother, Edwina, had the beauty and social inclinations of a Southern belle and, if not the wealth, the status that the Episcopalian ministry held in the small cotton center of Clarksdale, Mississippi. She often performed as a singer and, since Tom's grandmother was a music teacher, music early became a component of his life. Tom and his sister Rose, only sixteen months apart, were as inseparable as twins and were called “The Couple.”