Literary Birthday – 29 August – John Edward Williams

John Edward Williams was born on 29 August 1922 and died on 3 March 1994.

John Edward Williams Quotes

1. My God, to read without joy is stupid. (Wikipedia)
2. Sometimes, immersed in his books, there would come to him the awareness of all that he did not know, of all that he had not read; and the serenity for which he laboured was shattered as he realised the little time he had in life to read so much, to learn what he had to know. (Stoner)
3. The love of literature, of language, of the mystery of the mind and heart showing themselves in the minute, strange, and unexpected combinations of letters and words, in the blackest and coldest print—the love which he had hidden as if it were illicit and dangerous, he began to display, tentatively at first, and then boldly, and then proudly. (Stoner)
4. In the University library he wandered through the stacks, among the thousands of books, inhaling the musty odor of leather, cloth, and drying page as if it were an exotic incense. (Stoner)
5. We know that we are—what we are. (Stoner)

John Edward Williams was an American novelist, poet, editor, and professor. He moved to Denver, Colorado, where he studied at the University of Denver and earned both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts degree. He then attended the University of Missouri, where he taught English while completing his PhD in English literature in 1954. In 1955, Williams returned to the University of Denver as an assistant professor and later became director of its creative writing programme. He published his first novel, Nothing But the Night, and his first collection of poetry, The Broken Landscape, early in his career. Williams is best known for his novels Butcher’s Crossing, Stoner, and the epistolary novel, Augustus, which won the U.S. National Book Award. His novels are now widely admired for their thoughtful exploration of ambition, failure, work, and the quiet struggles of ordinary lives.

Source for image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Edward_Williams.png

by Amanda Patterson
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