Although Wirt Alfred Williams, Jr., is a writer unknown to some critics and many readers, he has received more critical recognition than many established writers. Of his six novels, three-- The Enemy (1951), Ada Dallas (1959), and The Far Side (1972)--have been nominated for Pulitzer Prizes.

Williams was born in Goodman, Mississippi, and raised in Cleveland, Mississippi. After graduating from Cleveland High School at age fifteen, he attended Delta State University, where he occasionally taught history classes for his father, who was head of the social studies department, and received a B.A. degree in English and American literature there in 1940 at the age of eighteen. Williams then entered graduate school at Louisiana State University and studied under Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks. He received an M.A. in journalism in 1941 and joined the navy the following year.

After the war, Williams returned to Louisiana and worked briefly as...