Charles Williams left home to ride the rails during the Great
Depression. Charles Williams went to sea instead, serving ten
years as a radioman in the Merchant Marine. Later, when he
became a writer, he put his nautical background to good use,
with many of his best stories taking place at sea or in port.
When on land, his stories were usually set in the rural
South; as Geoffry O'Brien puts it, "When his characters talk
about going to the big city they usually mean Shreveport."
Williams' fiction wasn't jam-packed with action like that of
many of his contemporaries, but simmered with hidden
conflicts that grew until they boiled over into sudden
violence. Frequently the conflict featured a woman whose
motives were unclear, sometimes even to herself. A sensitive
man who was unwilling to change with the demands of the
marketplace and unable to face failure, Williams drowned
himself in 1975.
I found this on bleekerbooks.com
Paul
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