peoplepill id: john-a-williams-1
JAW
United States of America
1 views today
3 views this week
John A. Williams
American writer

John A. Williams

The basics

Quick Facts

The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

John Alfred Williams (December 5, 1925 – July 3, 2015) was an African-American author, journalist, and academic. His novel The Man Who Cried I Am was a bestseller in 1967.

Life and career

Williams was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and his family moved to Syracuse, New York. After naval service in World War II, he graduated in 1950 from Syracuse University. He was a journalist for Ebony, Jet, and Newsweek magazines.

His novels, which include The Angry Ones (1960) and The Man Who Cried I Am (1967), are mainly about the black experience in white America. The Man Who Cried I Am, a fictionalized account of the life and death of Richard Wright, introduced the King Alfred Plan - a fictional CIA-led scheme supporting an international effort to eliminate people of African descent. This "plan" has since been cited as fact by some members of the Black Community and conspiracy theorists.

In the early 1980s, Williams, and the composer and flautist Leslie Burrs, with the agreement of Mercer Ellington, began collaborating on the completion of Queenie Pie, an opera by Duke Ellington that had been left unfinished at Ellington's death. The project fell through, and the opera was eventually completed by other hands.

In 2003, Williams performed a spoken-word piece on Transform, an album by rock band Powerman 5000. At the time, his son Adam Williams was the band's guitarist.

Personal life

He married Lori Isaac in 1965 and moved from Manhattan to Teaneck, New Jersey in 1975, as it was a place that "would not be inhospitable to a mixed marriage".

Honorable recognitions

In 1970, Williams received the Syracuse University Centennial Medal for Outstanding Achievement, in 1983 his novel !Click Song won the American Book Award, and in 1998, his Safari West won the American Book Award too. On October 16, 2011, he received a Lifetime Achievement award from the American Book Awards.

Death

Williams died on July 3, 2015, in Paramus, New Jersey, aged 89. He had Alzheimer's disease.

Legacy

Williams' personal papers, including correspondence and photographs, are archived in the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University.

Selected bibliography

Novels

  • The Angry Ones, Norton, 1960, 9780393314649; The Angry Ones: A Novel. Open Road Media. 2 February 2016. ISBN 978-1-5040-2591-1. 
  • Night Song, Farrar, Straus and Cudah, 1961; Night Song: A Novel. Open Road Media. 2 February 2016. ISBN 978-1-5040-2572-0. 
  • Sissie Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1963; Chatham Bookseller, 1975, ISBN 9780911860535
  • The Man Who Cried I Am, Little Brown, 1967; The Man Who Cried I Am: A Novel. Overlook Press. 2 February 2016. ISBN 978-1-5040-3355-8. 
  • Sons of Darkness, Sons of Light, Little, Brown, 1969; Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970, ISBN 9780413446206
  • Captain Blackman, Coffee House Press, 1972, ISBN 9781566890960 Captain Blackman: A Novel. Open Road Media. 2 February 2016. ISBN 978-1-5040-3264-3. 
  • Mothersill and the Foxes, Doubleday, 1975, ISBN 9780385094542
  • The Junior Bachelor Society, Doubleday, 1976, ISBN 9780385094559
  • !Click Song, 1982 ISBN 9780395318416; !Click Song: A Novel. Open Road Media. 2 February 2016. ISBN 978-1-5040-3304-6. 
  • The Berhama Account, New Horizon Press Publishers, Incorporated, 1985, ISBN 9780882820095
  • Jacob's Ladder, New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1987; Thunder's Mouth Press, 1989, ISBN 9780938410768
  • Clifford's Blues, Coffee House Press, 1999, ISBN 9781566890809; Clifford's Blues: A Novel. Open Road Media. 2 February 2016. ISBN 978-1-5040-3305-3. 

Non-fiction

  • Africa: Her History, Lands and People: Told with Pictures. Rowman & Littlefield. 1962. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-0-8154-0258-9. 
  • This Is My Country Too (1965)
  • The King God Didn't Save: Reflections on the Life and Death of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1970)
  • The Most Native of Sons: A Biography of Richard Wright (1970)
  • Flashbacks: A Twenty-Year Diary of Article Writing (1973)
  • If I Stop I'll Die: The Comedy and Tragedy of Richard Pryor (1991)

The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
Lists
John A. Williams is in following lists
comments so far.
Comments
From our partners
Sponsored
John A. Williams
arrow-left arrow-right instagram whatsapp myspace quora soundcloud spotify tumblr vk website youtube pandora tunein iheart itunes