John Alfred Williams (December 5, 1925 – July 3, 2015) was an American author, journalist, and academic. His novelThe Man Who Cried I Am was a bestseller in 1967.[1] Also a poet, he won anAmerican Book Award for his 1998 collectionSafari West.[2]
His novels, which includeThe Angry Ones (1960) andThe 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 African-American writerRichard Wright, introduced theKing Alfred Plan – a fictionalCIA-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.[citation needed]Sons of Darkness, Sons of Light: A Novel of Some Probability (1969) imagines arace war in the United States.[6] The novel begins as athriller with aspects ofdetective fiction andspy fiction, before transitioning toapocalyptic fiction at the point when the characters' revolt begins.[7]
In the early 1980s, Williams and the composer and flautistLeslie Burrs, with the agreement ofMercer Ellington, began collaborating on the completion ofQueenie Pie, anopera byDuke Ellington that had been left unfinished at Ellington's death. The project fell through, and the opera was eventually completed by other hands.[8]
Williams married Lori Isaac in 1965 and moved in 1975 fromManhattan toTeaneck, New Jersey, as it was a place that "would not be inhospitable to a mixed marriage".[9]
Dear Chester, Dear John, a collection of personal letters between Williams andChester Himes, who had met in 1961 and maintained a lifelong friendship, was published in 2008.
In 1970, Williams received theSyracuse University Centennial Medal for Outstanding Achievement,[10] in 1983 his novel!Click Song won theAmerican Book Award,[11] and in 1998, his book of poetrySafari West also won the American Book Award.[11] On October 16, 2011, he received a Lifetime Achievement award from the American Book Awards.[12]
Williams' personal papers, including correspondence and photographs, are held at Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries at theUniversity of Rochester.[14] There is also a collection of Williams' papers at the Special Collections Research Center[15] at Syracuse University.
^"Queenie".Opera World. Archived from the original on 2004-02-09. Retrieved2023-03-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Horner, Shirley."New Jersey Q & A: John A. Williams; A Novelist's Journey in Race Relations",The New York Times, June 13, 1993. Accessed July 8, 2015. "In an interview at his home in Teaneck, Professor Williams, 67, further talked about the relationship between blacks and whites in general, and blacks and Jews in particular; his interracial marriage and the experience of teaching at Rutgers.... In 1975, the Williamses left Manhattan for Teaneck; four years later, he accepted a full-time professorship at Rutgers.... Q. How did you come to Teaneck? A. We came here because we felt the town would not be inhospitable to a mixed marriage."
