One of America’s greatest playwrights, Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams in 1911. His plays include The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Camino Real, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and The Night of the Iguana, among many others. His work garnered two Pulitzer Prizes, four New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, and a Tony Award, and has been widely translated and performed around the world.

The Caterpillar Dogs and Other Early Stories (New Directions) is edited and introduced by Tom Mitchell: theater director, noted Tennessee Williams scholar, and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.