Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams in 1911. As a successful playwright, his career was greatly influenced by the events of his life. He was known for bringing to the reader "a slice of his life and the feel of Southern culture," as his main sources of inspiration were "the writers he grew up with, his family, and the South." The connection between his life and his work can be seen in many of his plays. A strong influence evident in Tennessee Williams' works is his family life, which was "full of tension and desperation". His father, a businessman who owned an entertainment warehouse, was known for his gambling and drinking habits. He was often engaged in violent arguments with his wife which frightened Tennessee's sister, Rose. Williams cared for Rose for much of her adult life, after her mother, Edwina, allowed her to undergo a frontal lobotomy. This event disturbed him greatly. Many people believe that Williams' first commercial success, The Glass Menagerie, was based on his family relationships. This play tells the story of Tom, his disabled sister, Laura, and their domineering mother, Amanda, who tries to set up a match between Laura and a gentleman caller. The characters appear to resemble Williams' immediate family. Tennessee Williams was also inspired to write by the writers he grew up with. During college, he saw a production of Ibsen's Ghosts, which inspired him to become a playwright. After graduating from the University of Iowa in 1938, he moved to New Orleans to launch his writing career. Here he found himself struck by the works of writers such as Arthur Rimbaud, Hart Crane and DH Lawrence. He wrote the play I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix, which dramatized the events surrounding Lawrence's death. He considered it a tribute to a writer he greatly respected and admired. Finally, Southern culture inspired Tennessee Williams to write one of his most famous works, A Streetcar Named Desire, basing his main characters on people he knew or met. The character of Stanley Kowalski was based on a good friend of his who he worked with at the International Shoe Company in the 1930s. She was also inspired by the image of a young woman who had just been teased by the man she intended to marry.