Kathleen Williams (1) (1919–1974)

Kathleen Mary Williams was born in Wales. Her father C. R. Williams was a railway controller. Her mother died when Kathleen was barely two years old, and she was brought up by her aunt, Stella Richards, a schoolteacher. She attended Monmouth High School and won scholarships to enable her read English at Oxford University, from which she graduated with First Class Honors. She went on to earn an M.A. at Oxford in 1945 and a D.Litt. from the University of Wales in 1964.
After World War II, she joined the faculty of University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire. In 1958, she published her first book, Jonathan Swift and the Age of Compromise, to acclaim by both American and British critics. A year later, she won the Bissing Research Fellowship from Johns Hopkins University, where she continued her studies of Swift and Edmund Spenser. Professor Williams was also awarded fellowships at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. and the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, California.

In 1964, she went to the University of California, Riverside, where she eventually became a full professor. In 1966, her second book, Spenser's World of Glass: The Faerie Queene, appeared and also received resounding praise. She taught undergraduate and graduate courses in two distinct historical periods, the 16th and the 18th centuries, and earned the admiration of colleagues and students for her impeccable scholarship, her lectures, and her her enthusiasm for learning, thinking, and writing.
In addition to her two major works, she also wrote a number of articles and reviews on 18th century and Renaissance subjects, as well as editing several important and useful critical collections.