John Edward Williams
Encyclopedia
John Edward Williams was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author, editor and professor. He was best known for his novels Stoner
Stoner (novel)
Stoner is a 1965 novel by the American writer John Williams. It was reissued in 2006 by New York Review Books Classics.The central character is an undistinguished English professor who pursues a largely uneventful career at a drab Midwestern university. Neither Stoner's wife, nor his colleagues,...

and Augustus
Augustus (novel)
Augustus is a 1973 novel by John Williams. It won the National Book Award.In epistolary form, the novel tells the story of Augustus, emperor of Rome, from his youth through old age.-National Book Award:...

.

Life

Williams was raised in northeast Texas. His grandparents were farmers; his stepfather was a janitor in a post office. Despite a talent for writing and acting, Williams flunked out of a local junior college after his first year. He worked with newspapers and radio stations in the Southwest for a year, then reluctantly joined the war effort
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 by enlisting in the United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....

 early in 1942, spending two and a half years as a sergeant in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and Burma. During his enlistment, he wrote a draft of his first novel, which was published in 1948.

At the end of the war Williams moved to Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

 and enrolled in the University of Denver
University of Denver
The University of Denver is currently ranked 82nd among all public and private "National Universities" by U.S. News & World Report in the 2012 rankings....

, receiving Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 (1949) and Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 (1950) degrees. During his time at University of Denver his first two books were published, Nothing But the Night (1948), a novel depicting the terror and waywardness resulting from an early traumatic experience, and The Broken Landscape (1949), a collection of poetry. Upon completing his MA Williams enrolled at the University of Missouri
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...

, teaching and working on his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 in English Literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

, which he obtained in 1954. In the fall of 1955 Williams returned to the University of Denver as Assistant Professor, becoming director of the creative writing program. His second novel, Butcher's Crossing, a depiction of 1870's Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

 frontier life, was published by Macmillan
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...

 in 1960. He edited and wrote the introduction for the anthology English Renaissance Poetry in 1963. His second book of poems, The Necessary Lie (1965), was issued by Verb Publications. He was the founding editor of the University of Denver Quarterly (later Denver Quarterly
Denver Quarterly
The Denver Quarterly is a literary journal based at the University of Denver. Founded in 1966 by novelist John Williams.-Best American Short Stories:...

), which was first issued in 1965. He remained as editor until 1970.

Williams' third novel, Stoner
Stoner (novel)
Stoner is a 1965 novel by the American writer John Williams. It was reissued in 2006 by New York Review Books Classics.The central character is an undistinguished English professor who pursues a largely uneventful career at a drab Midwestern university. Neither Stoner's wife, nor his colleagues,...

, the fictional tale of a University of Missouri English professor, was published by Viking Press
Viking Press
Viking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...

 in 1965. His fourth novel, Augustus
Augustus (novel)
Augustus is a 1973 novel by John Williams. It won the National Book Award.In epistolary form, the novel tells the story of Augustus, emperor of Rome, from his youth through old age.-National Book Award:...

, a rendering of the violent times of Augustus Caesar in Rome, was published by Viking Press in 1973 and co-won (with Chimera by John Barth
John Barth
John Simmons Barth is an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodernist and metafictive quality of his work.-Life:...

) the National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...

 in 1973 and remains in print.

After retiring from the University of Denver in 1985, Williams moved with his wife Nancy to Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville is the county seat of Washington County, and the third largest city in Arkansas. The city is centrally located within the county and is home to the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is also deep in the Boston Mountains, a subset of The Ozarks...

, where he resided until he died of respiratory failure in 1994. A fifth novel, The Sleep of Reason, was unfinished at the time of his death.

Williams loved the study of literature. In a 1985 interview he was asked, "And literature is written to be entertaining?" to which he replied emphatically, "Absolutely. My God, to read without joy is stupid."

Novels

  • Nothing But the Night (1948)
  • Butcher's Crossing (1960)
  • Stoner
    Stoner (novel)
    Stoner is a 1965 novel by the American writer John Williams. It was reissued in 2006 by New York Review Books Classics.The central character is an undistinguished English professor who pursues a largely uneventful career at a drab Midwestern university. Neither Stoner's wife, nor his colleagues,...

    (1965)
  • Augustus
    Augustus (novel)
    Augustus is a 1973 novel by John Williams. It won the National Book Award.In epistolary form, the novel tells the story of Augustus, emperor of Rome, from his youth through old age.-National Book Award:...

    (1973)

Reviews

Critic Morris Dickstein noted that, while Butcher's Crossing, Stoner
Stoner (novel)
Stoner is a 1965 novel by the American writer John Williams. It was reissued in 2006 by New York Review Books Classics.The central character is an undistinguished English professor who pursues a largely uneventful career at a drab Midwestern university. Neither Stoner's wife, nor his colleagues,...

, and Augustus
Augustus (novel)
Augustus is a 1973 novel by John Williams. It won the National Book Award.In epistolary form, the novel tells the story of Augustus, emperor of Rome, from his youth through old age.-National Book Award:...

are "strikingly different in subject," they "show a similar narrative arc: a young man's initiation, vicious male rivalries, subtler tensions between men and women, fathers and daughters, and finally a bleak sense of disappointment, even futility." Dickstein called Stoner "something rarer than a great novel -- it is a perfect novel, so well told and beautifully written, so deeply moving, it takes your breath away."

In his introduction to Stoner, author John McGahern
John McGahern
John McGahern was one of the most important Irish authors of the latter half of the twentieth century. Before his death in 2006 he was hailed as "the greatest living Irish novelist" by The Observer.-Life:...

wrote, "There is entertainment of a very high order to be found in Stoner, what Williams himself describes as 'an escape into reality' as well as pain and joy. The clarity of the prose is in itself an unadulterated joy."
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