John Williams was an author, editor and professor. Born in 1922 in Texas, he served in the United States Army Air Force from 1942 to 1945 in China, Burma and India. His first novel, Nothing But the Night, was published in 1948. After receiving his PhD in 1954, Williams returned to the University of Denver where he first studied to teach literature and creative writing for thirty years. It was during this time that he wrote the novels Butcher's Crossing (1960) and Stoner (1965). His last novel, Augustus, won the National Book Award in 1973. John Williams died in Arkansas in 1994.

"Weir's sympathetic and detailed biography reassesses the life of a woman whose role in public life...has been underrated by historians" New Statesman "The finest historical novel ever written by an American" Washington Post "It would be easy to over-praise this novel; but there does not seem any adequate reason why this temptation should be resisted" Economist "A novel of extraordinary range, yet of extraordinary minuteness, that manages never to sacrifice one quality for the other" Financial Times "Williams has fashioned an always engaging, psychologically convincing work of fiction - a consistent and well-realized portrait" New Yorker