Historical Notability
Of Williams's twenty-two novels, sixteen were paperback originals—eleven of them Gold Medals; he is described by Gorman as "the best of all the Gold Medal writers." Pulp historian Woody Haut calls Williams the "foremost practitioner" of the style of suspense that typified American pulp literature from the mid-1950s through the early 1960s: "So prolific and accomplished a writer was Charles Williams that he single-handedly made many subsequent pulp culture novels seem like little more than parodies." Fellow hardboiled author John D. MacDonald cites him as one of the most undeservedly neglected writers of his generation. O'Brien, singling him out as especially "overdue" for "wider appreciation," describes Williams as a stylist consistently faithful to "the narrative values which make his books so entertaining and his present neglect so inexplicable."
As of mid-2006, only three of Williams's novels are in print in the United States: River Girl, Nothing in Her Way (1953), and A Touch of Death (1954). Most of his work is currently in print in France, issued primarily by Rivages and Gallimard's Série noire. At present, two of the five officially released English-language movies based on his writing are available on DVD in North America: Dead Calm (1989), directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill, and Billy Zane, and The Hot Spot (1990), directed by Dennis Hopper and starring Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen, and Jennifer Connelly. In addition, the French production Vivement dimanche! (Confidentially Yours) (1983), directed by François Truffaut and starring Fanny Ardant and Jean-Louis Trintignant, is currently available on US video.
Read more about this topic: Charles Williams (U.S. Author)
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