Williams, John (John Edward), 1922-1994

John Williams, novelist and poet, was born on August 29, 1922, in Clarksville, Texas. After holding various positions with newspapers and radio stations in the Southwest, Williams enlisted in the USAF early in 1942, spending two and a half years as a sergeant in India and Burma. Several years after the war, Williams enrolled in the University of Denver, where he received his B.A. in 1949 and an M.A. in 1950. In the fall of 1950, Williams went to the University of Missouri, where he taught and received a Ph. D. in 1954. In the fall of 1955, Williams took over the directorship of the creative writing program at the University of Denver. In 1965 he became editor of University of Denver Quarterly (later Denver Quarterly) until 1970. In 1973 he won the prestigious National Book Award for his fourth novel Augustus. All of his novels, as well as English Renaissance Poetry, have been reissued by the University of Arkansas Press. After retiring from the University of Denver in 1986, Williams moved with his wife, Nancy, to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he resided until he died of respiratory failure on March 3, 1994. A fifth novel, The Sleep of Reason, was left unfinished at the time of his death.