Charles Williams

Charles Walter Stansby Williams joined the Oxford University Press in 1908 and remained a member of the staff as a literary adviser until his death. The firm follower of the Church of England published his first book of poems, called The Silver Stair, in 1912. In the following decades, he wrote and published untiringly anthologies, prefaces, reviews, poetry, plays (Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury), literary criticism, fiction (The Place of the Lion, Descent into Hell), biographies (Bacon, James I, Elizabeth I), and theological disputes. Romantic love and the coinherence of humans were to become the main foci of his work.

By coining his own terminology, however, this made him somewhat difficult to read. With the outbreak of World War II, he had to follow the Oxford University Press from London to Oxford. In 1943, the Oxford University awarded him an honorary MA for his lectures. Williams was a member of the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross and - together with J. R. R. Tolkien – of the literary circle Inklings. He was also a close friend of C. S. Lewis, author of the Chronicles of Narnia.

In his Williams biography The Third Inkling, Grevel Lindop reports that he submitted his Ceremonial Ode for the Opening of the Olympic Games without really knowing the procedures of the competition. Later, he received a diploma and a “bronze” medal, probably the participant’s medal. He was obviously not amused, when he found out that this was not really a unique award of appreciation.