Category Archives: Influences

The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse

Posted on 9 March 2022 by Sørina Higgins

Happy Wednesday! Here’s your dose of CW for this week. Instead of a work that he wrote, today I’m talking about a book that he edited. His connection with its compilers contributed one of the more important aspects of his … Continue reading →

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“The Marriage-Craft”: Novel Occult Sexuality

Posted on 30 September 2017 by Sørina Higgins

CW Was Such a Character Each investigation into Charles Williams’s life and work reveals new depths of his occult involvement and new peculiarities of his theological system. I have found this to be true whether I am reading his own … Continue reading →

Posted in Arthuriana, Book Summaries, Influences, Rosicruciana | Tagged , , , , , | 20 Comments

The Inklings and Celtic Mythology

Posted on 5 September 2016 by Sørina Higgins

Oops. I haven’t posted on here in a while. I didn’t finish my series on the “Magnum Opus” Inspector Lewis episode. I haven’t continued my book summaries of CW’s works. What happened?!?! Oh, the little matter of a PhD. That’s … Continue reading →

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What Happens When a Bander Snatches

Posted on 12 April 2016 by Sørina Higgins

I recently served on a jury. It was a powerful, intense, positive, transformational experience. Interestingly, since I’ve just read Diana Glyer’s Bandersnatch and am thinking about my upcoming keynote speech about Charles Williams and collaboration, the trial was about artistic … Continue reading →

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Almost a Great Poet: CW Edits Gerard Manley’s Hopkins

Posted on 9 September 2015 by Sørina Higgins

In 1930, Robert Bridges asked Charles Williams to edit and introduce a second edition of the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. He did, and it was published by Oxford University Press. Williams wrote of Hopkins’s work: “It is arguable that … Continue reading →

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On Meeting Shakespeare

Posted on 25 April 2014 by Sørina Higgins

Happy 450th birthday, Shakespeare! This past Wednesday–23 April 2014–was the traditional date on which we mark the Bard’s birthday. We don’t really know what day he was born on, but he was christened on this date, April 25th, and died … Continue reading →

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An Introduction to Amen House

Posted on 9 April 2014 by Sørina Higgins

The next several works by CW that I’m going to be summarizing were all written during his happiest years of work at Amen House, the London Offices of Oxford University Press. I have written before about how important his workplace … Continue reading →

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A Little Song that Must be Heard: Alice Meynell’s Early Influence on CW

Posted on 27 November 2013 by Sørina Higgins

In graduate school, I wrote a paper on a Victorian poet, Alice Meynell. I later found out that she had an important early influence on Charles Williams; she and her husband financed the publication of his first book. The entire … Continue reading →

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