Albert Rhys Williams
| Albert Rhys Williams | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | September 28, 1883 |
| Died | February 27, 1962 (aged 78) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Hartford Seminary |
| Occupation | journalist |
Albert Rhys Williams (September 28, 1883 – February 27, 1962), commonly known by his middle name, pronounced "Reece," was an American journalist, labor organizer, and publicist who is most famous for writing memoirs about the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, an event in which he was both a witness and a participant.
Albert Rhys Williams was born in Greenwich, Ohio, on September 28, 1883, to David Thomas Williams, a Congregationalist minister, and Esther Rees (Rhys). Both of his parents were immigrants from Wales in Britain. All of Rhys's brothers (he was the second of four) followed in the footsteps of their father and became ministers. Of them, David Rhys Williams (one of two youngest) had a long and distinguished career in the Unitarian ministry.
At the end of the 1880s the family settled in the New York State resort community. In 1897 Albert graduated from high school in Hancock, New York. After that he worked for some time in a lumber yard in Apex, New York, then he moved to Ohio where he worked at a clothing store. In 1900 he went to a college in Marietta, Ohio, where he studied until 1904. At Marietta College Williams made his first steps in journalism, being an editor of the college newspaper. Also he helped to organize a union for retail clerks in Marietta.
In 1904–07 Williams studied at the Hartford Theological Seminary, having graduated it with a license to preach. There he also edited a labor column for the Hartford Evening Post. With a preachers license in the summer of 1907 Williams worked at the Settlement House of the Spring Street Presbyterian Church in New York City. In New York Rhys met Norman Thomas (later the Socialist Party presidential candidate) who was then a Presbyterian seminarian. In these years they both organized men's club debates.
In 1907–08 Williams was studying on a fellowship at Cambridge University and the University of Marburg. There he met members of the British Labour Party and other socialists. On his return to the United States, Williams he worked for the 1908 presidential campaign of Socialist Eugene Debs. After that Williams returned to his main profession as a minister of the Maverick Square Congregational Church in East Boston (1908–14). However he did not abandon the labor and social issues at all; in 1912 Williams raised money and spoke up for the workers during the 1912 textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. There Williams first met John Reed, whose acquaintance played a role in his upcoming interest in Russia and then his trip to this far overseas country.
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