A Charles Williams Reader by Charles Williams

Eliot, who as a director of Faber and Faber published several of Williams's novels and C. His “supernatural thrillers,” as his novels were called, attracted a wide audience at the time and introduced the author to two notable admirers: T. Although he did not remain with the group, Williams later drew upon his acquired knowledge of Magia (white magic) and Goetia (black magic) for subject matter in his novels.īy 1930, when the first of these novels, War in Heaven, was published, Williams had established himself as a minor poet and critic, as well as an outstanding lecturer on the major English poets at evening literature classes in London. At this time, he also joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret society devoted to the acquisition of occult knowledge. In his late twenties, he became interested in magic and Rosicrucianism-a view based on Western traditions of mystery that is concerned with inner worlds, mysticism, and spirituality. Professional Poet, Eternal Mystic Throughout his professional writing life, Williams considered himself to be primarily a poet, and during the early years of his career, published only poetry. During the same year, he met Florence Conway, whom he later married and to whom he wrote many love poems. Raised in the Anglican faith, Williams loved the city of London and the Church of England throughout his life, and both are central elements in much of his fiction.įorced in 1908 by his family's lack of money to curtail his education at the University of London after only two years, Williams secured an editorial position at the London office of the Oxford University Press-where he worked for the rest of his life.

Works in Biographical and Historical Contextįamily Finances Affect Life Williams was born in London on September 20, 1886, to a middle-class family in financial straits. Williams's talents were evident in many genres, including poetry, drama, fiction, biography, poetic theory, theology, literary essays, and book reviews. He was an eloquent philosopher of human and divine love whose own romantic life was often deeply troubled. He was a devoted Christian whose novels explore black magic. He was a working-class man who lectured at Oxford University. GENRE: Fiction, poetry, nonfiction, dramaīritish author Charles Williams was in many ways a paradox. BORN: 1886, Holloway, North London, England

A Charles Williams Reader by Charles Williams