Charles Williams (U.S. author)
| Charles K. Williams | |
|---|---|
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| Born | August 13, 1909 San Angelo, Texas |
| Died | April 5, 1975 Los Angeles, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Writer, electronics inspector |
| Spouse(s) | Lasca Foster (1939-1972) (her death) |
Charles K. Williams (August 13, 1909–April 5, 1975) was an American author of crime fiction. He is regarded by some critics as one of the finest suspense novelists of the 1950s and 1960s. His 1951 debut, the pulp paperback novel Hill Girl, sold more than a million copies. A dozen of his books have been adapted for movies, most popularly Dead Calm.
Williams was born in the central Texas town of San Angelo. After attending school through tenth grade, during 1929 he enlisted with the US Merchant Marine. He served for ten years before quitting to marry Lasca Foster. Having trained as a radioman during his seafaring career, Williams worked as an electronics inspector, first for RCA in Galveston, Texas, later at Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington State through the end of World War II. He and his wife then relocated to San Francisco, where he worked for Mackay Radio company until the publication of his first novel, Hill Girl, during 1951. It was a great success, and Williams spent the remainder of his professional career as an author, primarily of novels, with several screenplays also to his credit. The couple changed residences frequently and apparently spent considerable time in France, where Williams's work has an excellent reputation. After the death of his wife from cancer during 1972, Williams purchased property on the California-Oregon border where he lived alone for a time in a trailer. Ultimately relocating to Los Angeles, Williams committed suicide in his apartment in the Van Nuys neighborhood during early April 1975. Williams had been depressed since the death of his wife, and his emotional state worsened as sales of his books declined as pulp thrillers began to lose popularity in the early 70s. He was survived by a daughter, Alison. Many sources continue to repeat the false rumor that Williams died by drowning in the Gulf of Mexico or in France.
Williams's work is identified with the noir fiction subgenre of "hardboiled" crime writing. His 1953 novel Hell Hath No Fury—- published by the defining pulp crime fiction company, Gold Medal Books—- was the first paperback original to merit a review from renowned critic Anthony Boucher of The New York Times. Boucher relates Williams to two of the most famous noir fiction writers: "The striking suspense technique...may remind you of [Cornell] Woolrich; the basic story, with its bitter blend of sex and criminality, may recall James M. Cain. But Mr. Williams is individually himself in his sharp but unmannered prose style and in his refusal to indulge in sentimental compromises."Ed Gorman's description of a characteristic Williams novel, Man on the Run (1958), outlines the essential elements that associate it with the noir fiction category: "a) a falsely accused man trying to elude police, b) a lonely woman as desperate in her way as the man on the run, c) enough atmospherics (night, rain, fog) to enshroud a hundred films noir." Cultural critic Geoffrey O'Brien further details Williams's "chief characteristics":
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