Williams, Jonathan, 1929-2008

Jonathan Williams is a poet, publisher, and photographer. He was educated at St. Albans School, Princeton University, and Black Mountain College, and also studied art and design at the Institute of Design in Chicago. His published books of poetry include An Ear in Bartram's Tree (1969), Blues and Roots/Rue and Bluets (1971), The Loco Logodaedalus in Situ (1972), and Elite/Elate Poems (1979), and his published books of photography include Portrait Photographs (1979) and A Palpable Elysium: Photographs (1997). In 1951, Williams founded the press The Jargon Society, which publishes poetry, experimental fiction, photography, and folk art. As a poet and publisher, he has long been associated with the Black Mountain Poets. Williams has also served as a contributing editor to the photography journal Aperture. He lived in Scaly Mountain, North Carolina.

American poet.

Jonathan Williams, poet, publisher and designer, was born in North Carolina. He studied art history at Princeton and attended Chicago Institute of Design. Williams lived both in North Carolina and England. His work/poetry is associated with the Black Mountain School and the beat poets. Williams has published more than 50 volumes of poetry in which drawings are heavily featured including lithographs and silk-screen prints. He has also won many awards and is the founder & director/editor of the Jargon Society, a non-profit, educational organization and publisher of poetry.

Jonathan Williams (1929-2008) was an American poet, photographer, and publisher. His press, The Jargon Society, continues to publish in the Asheville region of North Carolina. Williams, along with other poets published by Jargon, have carved out a special niche in both the Carolina cultural landscape and the American literary world. Black Mountain Poets, the name given to Williams and his fellow poets, derives from Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where Williams and many of his contemporaries attended school and developed their craft. The college is known for producing many great artists, poets, writers, photographers, and performing artists. Williams, and his press, have a long legacy of publishing the abstract, eccentric, and often misunderstood or little known writers and poets of the modern American and British literary landscape. Williams and his press are known for the beauty, craftsmanship, printing, style, and uniqueness of their publications. Harold Cohen founded the design department at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, where he hired art and design luminaries. During this period he designed housing, modular buildings, and produced tables and a famous chair. He and his wife Mary have been long time friends and supporters of Williams.

Jonathan Williams (Princeton Class of 1951) founded the Jargon Society, a poet's press, in 1951. He remains its editorial director, publisher, and designer.