Charles Williams
Charles Williams was an English writer, poet, theologian, and literary scholar, known for his diverse body of work that included poetry, novels, and plays. Born to Walter Williams, a foreign correspondence clerk and poet, Charles was educated at St. Albans School and briefly attended the University of London. Despite not completing his formal education, he became a prolific writer and an influential figure in literary circles, particularly through his association with the Inklings, a group that included notable authors like C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. His literary career spanned several decades, producing volumes of poetry, and critical works that explored the intersections of creativity and spirituality.
Williams's novels often blended elements of the supernatural with profound moral and theological themes, reflecting his Anglican beliefs. Noteworthy works include "War in Heaven" and "Descent into Hell," which depict the struggle between good and evil in a contemporary setting. His fascination with Arthurian legends culminated in significant poetic works, including "Taliessin Through Logres," and he offered innovative interpretations of Dante's writings. Williams's legacy was solidified posthumously through the tributes of his contemporaries, highlighting the depth and originality of his thoughts, as well as his dedication to exploring the spiritual dimensions of literature.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Charles Williams
English novelist, poet, and critic
- Born: September 20, 1886
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: May 15, 1945
- Place of death: Oxford, England
Biography
Charles Williams was the son of Walter Williams, a foreign correspondence clerk who also wrote poetry under the name Stansby. Charles was educated at St. Albans School and had two years at the University of London before he was forced to end his formal studies to earn his living. During years in a publishing job he continued his studies, however, and without acquiring any formal degrees he became a profound literary scholar, historian, theologian, poet, and novelist. Throughout his career as an editor with Oxford University Press he taught, lectured, and wrote prolifically. In 1917 he married Florence Conway, and they had one son. He lived all his life in London, except for a few years during World War II when his publishing firm was evacuated to Oxford. There he joined the Inklings, a literary group that included C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. After his death in 1945 the tributes of these and other literary friends such as W. H. Auden, T. S. Eliot, and Dorothy Sayers brought him wider recognition than he had had during his lifetime.
Williams’s literary career developed gradually, with four volumes of poems published between 1912 and 1924. His first play, A Myth of Shakespeare, was published in 1928. During the next decade he published eighteen books covering the entire range of his varied but closely related interests. In his three critical works he explored the religious basis of the creative imagination: Poetry at Present, The English Poetic Mind, and Reason and Beauty in the Poetic Mind. His historical studies were concerned with the relationship between the individual and the pattern of history: Bacon, James I, and Rochester. The depth of his thought as an original but profoundly orthodox Anglican was revealed in two religious books, The Rite of the Passion and He Came Down from Heaven. He also maintained a predominantly religious emphasis in the plays. His religious conviction was combined with an interest in witchcraft and the occult, which formed the basis of a remarkable series of novels, including War in Heaven, Many Dimensions, The Place of the Lion, The Greater Trumps, Shadows of Ecstasy, and Descent into Hell. Described by critics as supernatural thrillers, these novels employ a realistic contemporary English setting as the background for the eternal conflict between good and evil, revealing both the mystic and the sensuous facets of Williams’s personality.
In 1938 Williams published his first verse collection since 1924, Taliessin Through Logres, a series of brilliant but difficult poems based on Arthurian legends. His historical, poetic, and religious interests became focused on two of the greatest myths of European culture: the English legend of the king and the Italian poet’s legend of the beloved lady. Williams’s two books about Dante, Religion and Love in Dante and The Figure of Beatrice, are among the most stimulating interpretations of Dante in English. He further explored his passionate interest in the supernatural in the three religious and philosophical studies The Descent of the Dove, Witchcraft, and The Forgiveness of Sins. In 1944 he published the second volume of Arthurian poems, The Region of the Summer Stars. He also continued to write plays with a historical background and religious theme: Judgement at Chelmsford, The House of the Octopus, and Seed of Adam, and Other Plays (published posthumously). The novel All Hallows’ Eve was published shortly before his death in 1945, and Flecker of Dean Close in 1946.
Williams’s death came at a time when he was thought to have been at the height of his literary power. He left behind a large body of material that he had intended to use in both poetic and critical interpretations of the Arthurian myth, which had increasingly absorbed him during the war years. C. S. Lewis edited and enlarged upon this material in a volume called Arthurian Torso. Williams’s Arthurian studies during the war were in no sense escapist. He saw England’s role in the conflict as part of a pattern in history that had been foreshadowed in the Arthurian cycle. The company of the Grail knights on their quest was to Williams not merely a poetic image but a spiritual reality. To Williams, all of creation was unified in God across all time and space; this idea permeates all his works subtly or overtly, no matter what the genre or the subject. The wide range of his interests and considerable scope of his literary powers were all concentrated, in Eliot’s phrase, “to apprehend the point of intersection of the timeless with time.”
Bibliography
Carpenter, Humphrey. The Inklings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978. Discusses Williams along with other writers.
Cavaliero, Glen. Charles Williams: Poet of Theology. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1983. Useful general study of Williams.
Fredrick, Candice, and Sam McBride. Women Among the Inklings: Gender, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001. A study of the attitudes toward women among the Inklings, both in their relationships with the women in their lives and in their depictions of women in fiction.
Hadfield, Alice Mary. Charles Williams. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Useful general study of Williams.
Hillegas, Mark R., ed. Shadows of Imagination: The Fantasies of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. Carbondale: University of Illinois Press, 1969. Discusses Williams along with other writers.
Howard, Thomas. The Novels of Charles Williams. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. Elementary but helpful.
Huttar, Charles, and Peter Schakal, eds. The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams. Lewisberg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1996. A collection of essays on Williams’s works.
King, Roma A., Jr. The Pattern in the Web: The Mythical Poetry of Charles Williams. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1990. Williams’s poetry receives attention.
Sibley, Agnes Marie. Charles Williams. Boston: Twayne, 1982. An introductory literary biography, including criticism and bibliography.
Spencer, Kathleen. Charles Williams. San Bernardino, Calif.: Borgo Press, 1986. An excellent introduction to Williams.
Weeks, Dennis L. Steps Toward Salvation: An Examination of Coinherence and Substitution in the Seven Novels of Charles Williams. New York: P. Lang, 1991. A study of the religious philosophy espoused in Williams’s fiction.