Charles Williams (U.S. Author) - Life

Life

Williams was born in the central Texas town of San Angelo. After attending school through tenth grade, in 1929 he enlisted in the US Merchant Marine. He served for ten years before leaving 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 moved to San Francisco, where he worked at Mackay Radio until the publication of his first novel, Hill Girl, in 1951. It was a great success, and Williams spent the rest of his professional career as a writer, 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 in 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 in early April 1975. 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.