Paul Williams (journalist)


Paul S. Williams was an American music journalist and writer who created Crawdaddy!, the first national US magazine of rock music criticism, in January 1966. He was a leading authority on the works of musicians Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, and Neil Young, and science fiction writers Philip K. Dick and Theodore Sturgeon.

Career

While briefly enrolled at Swarthmore College, Williams created :Crawdaddy!, the first national US magazine of rock music criticism, in January 1966 with the help of some of his fellow science fiction fans. The first issue was ten mimeographed pages written entirely by Williams. He left the magazine in 1968 and reclaimed the title in 1993, but had to end it in 2003 due to financial difficulties.
He was also the author of more than 25 books, of which the best-known are Outlaw Blues, Das Energi, and , the acclaimed three-part series. Williams was a leading authority on the works of musicians Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, and Neil Young, and science fiction writers Philip K. Dick and Theodore Sturgeon. His final published books were The 20th Century's Greatest Hits and the last volume of his critical look at the music of Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan: Mind Out of Time .
In 1981 he edited and published, with David G. Hartwell, the first book edition of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a foreword by Jimmy Carter. Williams also made significant contributions to David G. Hartwell's book length analysis of science fiction, Age of Wonders: Exploring the World of Science Fiction, and Hartwell mentions Paul Williams prominently in the book's acknowledgements.

Association with Philip K. Dick

In the spring of 1967 Williams was introduced to the fiction of Philip K. Dick by Trina Robbins, Bhob Stewart and Art Spiegelman. He introduced himself to Dick in August 1968 at the 26th World Science Fiction Convention in Berkeley, California, beginning a friendship that lasted through the rest of Dick's life.
In 1974, Williams began working on a profile of Dick for Rolling Stone. "The True Stories of Philip K. Dick", which appeared in the November 6, 1975 issue of the magazine, covered a variety of subjects, including many theories about the 1971 break-in of Dick's home in San Rafael, California, a 1972 suicide attempt in British Columbia, his subsequent move to Orange County, California, the politics of the era, and the relationship of Dick's drug use to his writing career.
Williams was Dick's literary executor for several years after Dick's death and used that position to get several of the author's previously unpublished neorealist novels into print.
From 1983 to 1992, Williams ran the Philip K. Dick Society along with Andy Watson and Keith Bowden in the UK. PKDS had some thousands of members internationally and was a significant influence in publicising Dick's work internationally. It published 30 quarterly newsletters, some of which included previously unpublished Dick material.

In 1986, Williams published , one of the first biographies of Dick.
Williams is a featured interviewee in three documentaries about Dick: a biographical documentary BBC2 released in 1994 as part of its Arena arts series called Philip K Dick: A Day in the Afterlife, The Gospel According to Philip K. Dick, which was produced in 2001, and The Penultimate Truth About Philip K. Dick, another biographical documentary film produced in 2007.

Personal life

In early 1968, he was dating Trina Robbins.
A longtime friend and associate of Mel Lyman, Williams lived and worked at Lyman's intentional community at Fort Hill, Boston for a few months in 1971. According to Rolling Stones David Felton, Williams told him he had actually had to escape under cover of darkness, as he had been told he was being watched and would not be allowed to leave. According to his official website, he also lived in a wilderness commune at Galley Bay in British Columbia.
In 1972, Williams married, a Japanese singer-songwriter; they raised two children.
In the 1980s, he was married to Donna Nassar who provided many illustrations for Crawdaddy!s second incarnation.
In 1992, Williams began a relationship with anti-folk co-founder and singer Cindy Lee Berryhill, who became his widow.
In 2009, Williams lived in Encinitas, California with Berryhill and their son, Alexander Berryhill-Williams, part of the year but eventually had to enter a nursing home due to dementia. He was suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy dementia, the early onset of which was attributed to a brain injury Williams sustained in a 1995 bicycle accident.
The medical bills were enormous, and the family asked for donations toward his continued medical care. On December 14, 2009 Paul Williams was accepted for Medi-Cal coverage.

Death

Williams died on March 27, 2013, at his home in California at age 64 from complications related to a 1995 bicycle accident. Williams, according to a note on his official website, "suffered a traumatic brain injury in a bicycle accident, leading to early onset of dementia, and a steady decline to the point where he now requires full-time care. The burden on his immediate family has been immense."

Books