John A. Williams (John Alfred Williams) Biography

American novelist, born in Jackson, Mississippi, educated at Syracuse University, New York. Williams's novels are notable for their political dissection of American society in terms of the African-American experience; their dominant tone is suggested by the title of his first novel, The Angry Ones (1960). In Night Song (1961), a jazz musician employs his art to combat racial injustice. In Sissie (1963; UK title Journey out of Anger, 1968) an increasing political militancy is displayed which was sustained in novels such as The Man Who Cried I Am (1967), Sons of Darkness, Sons of Light (1969), and Captain Blackman (1972). His later work, in which the accent is more on the richness of African-American culture, includes the novels Mothersill and the Foxes (1975), The Junior Bachelor Society (1976), ! Click Song (1982), The Berhama Account (1985), and Jacob's Ladder (1987). His other books include Africa: Her History, Lands, and People (1962), This Is My Country, Too (1965), The Most Native of Sons: A Biography of Richard Wright (1970), The King God Didn't Save: Reflections on the Life and Death of Martin Luther King, Jr (1970), Flashbacks: A Twenty-Year Diary of Article Writing (1972), Minorities in the City (1975), and Flashbacks 2: A Diary of Article Writing (1991). With Dennis A. Williams, he has written If I Stop Laughing I'll Die: The Comedy and Tragedy of Richard Pryor (1991). He is the editor with Gilbert H. Muller, of Bridges: Literature Across Cultures (1993), an anthology of American writing. See Gilbert H. Muller, John A. Williams (1984).