Editing Raymond Williams

{{Short description|Welsh scholar, critic and Marxist (1921–1988)}}
{{For|other persons named Raymond Williams|Ray Williams (disambiguation)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|region = [[Western philosophy]]
|era = [[20th-century philosophy]]
|image = Raymond_Williams_At_Saffron_Walden.jpg
|caption = Williams at Saffron Walden
|birth_name = Raymond Henry Williams
|birth_date = {{birth date|1921|8|31|df=y}}
|birth_place = [[Pandy, Monmouthshire]], Wales
|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1988|01|26|1921|08|31}}
|death_place = [[Saffron Walden]], [[Essex]], England
|alma_mater = [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]
|school_tradition = [[Western Marxism]]
|main_interests =
|notable_students = [[Terry Eagleton]], [[David Hare (playwright)|David Hare]]
|notable_ideas = [[Cultural materialism (cultural studies)|Cultural materialism]]<br />[[Mobile privatization|Mobile privatisation]]
|influences = [[Karl Marx]]{{•}} [[Antonio Gramsci]]{{•}} [[Louis Althusser]]
|influenced = [[Terry Eagleton]]{{•}} [[Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)|Stuart Hall]]<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dunn |first=Hopeton S. |year=2014 |title=A Tribute to Stuart Hall |journal=[[Critical Arts]] |volume=28 |issue=4 |page=758 |doi=10.1080/02560046.2014.929228 |s2cid=144415843 |issn=1992-6049}}</ref>{{•}} [[Edward Said]]
}}
'''Raymond Henry Williams''' (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh [[socialist]] writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the [[New Left]] and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contributed to the [[Marxist]] critique of culture and the arts. Some 750,000 copies of his books were sold in UK editions alone,{{sfn|Williams|1979}} and there are many translations available. His work laid foundations for the field of [[cultural studies]] and [[Cultural materialism (cultural studies)|cultural materialism]].

== Life ==
=== Early life ===
Born in [[Pandy, Monmouthshire|Pandy]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/01/the-guardian-view-on-raymond-williams-at-100|title=The Guardian view on Raymond Williams at 100|work=The Guardian|date=1 September 2021|access-date=14 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.swansea.ac.uk/crew/raymond-williams/about-raymond-williams/|title=About Raymond Williams|publisher=[[Swansea University]]|access-date=14 May 2024|last=Williams|first=Daniel G.}}</ref> just north of [[Llanfihangel Crucorney]], near [[Abergavenny]], Wales, Williams was the son of a railway worker in a village where all of the railwaymen voted [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]], while the local small farmers mostly voted [[British Liberal Party|Liberal]].{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=16}} It was not a Welsh-speaking area: he described it as "Anglicised in the 1840s".{{sfn|Williams|1979|p=25}} There was, nevertheless, a strong Welsh identity. "There is the joke that someone says his family came over with the Normans and we reply: 'Are you liking it here?'"{{sfn|Williams|1979|p=36}}

Williams attended [[King Henry VIII Grammar School]] in [[Abergavenny]]. His teenage years were overshadowed by the rise of [[Nazism]] and the threat of war. His father was secretary of the local Labour Party, but Raymond declined to join, although he did attend meetings around the [[1935 United Kingdom general election|1935 general election]].{{sfn|Williams|1979|pp=31–32}} He was 14 when the [[Spanish Civil War]] broke out, and was conscious of what was happening through his membership of the local [[Left Book Club]].{{sfn|Williams|1979|p=32}} He also mentions the Italian invasion of Abyssinia ([[Ethiopia]]) and [[Edgar Snow]]'s ''[[Red Star Over China]]'', originally published in Britain by the Left Book Club.{{sfn|Williams|1979|p=31}}

At this time, he supported the [[League of Nations]], attending a League-organised youth conference in Geneva in 1937. On the way back, his group visited Paris and he went to the Soviet pavilion at the [[International Exhibition]]. There he bought a copy of ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]'' and read [[Karl Marx]] for the first time.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=72}}

In July 1939, he was involved in the [[1939 Monmouth by-election|Monmouth by-election]], helping with an unsuccessful campaign by the Labour candidate, Frank Hancock, who was a pacifist. Williams was also a pacifist at this time, having distributed leaflets for the Peace Pledge Union.{{sfn|Smith|2008|pp=73–75}}

=== University education ===
Williams won a [[State Scholarship (UK)|state scholarship]] to read English at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], [[matriculating]] in 1939.<ref name="ODNB" /> While at Cambridge, he joined the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]]. Along with [[Eric Hobsbawm]], he was given the task of writing a Communist Party pamphlet about the [[Russo-Finnish War]]. He says in (''Politics and Letters'') that they "were given the job as people who could write quickly, from historical materials supplied for us. You were often in there writing about topics you did not know very much about, as a professional with words".{{sfn|Williams|1979|p=43}}

At the time, the British government was keen to support [[Finland]] in its war against the [[Soviet Union]], while still being at war with [[Nazi Germany]]. He took a second (division two) in part one of the [[tripos]] in 1941, and, after returning from war service, achieved [[first-class honours]] in part two in 1946.<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB |title=Williams, Raymond Henry (1921–1988), literary scholar and novelist |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39847 |access-date=2021-03-22 |year=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/39847}}</ref> He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA degree in 1946: as per tradition, his BA was promoted to a [[Master of Arts (Oxbridge and Dublin)|Master of Arts]] (MA Cantab) degree.<ref name="WWW">{{cite web |title=Williams, Prof. Raymond Henry, (31 Aug. 1921–26 Jan. 1988), Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, since 1961 |url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U170468 |website=[[Who Was Who]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |access-date=30 June 2021 |language=en |date=1 December 2007}}</ref> He was later awarded a [[higher doctorate]] by Cambridge: the [[Doctor of Letters]] (LittD) degree in 1969.<ref name="ODNB"/>

=== World War II ===
Williams interrupted his education to serve in the [[Second World War]]. He enlisted in the [[British Army]] in late 1940, but stayed at Cambridge to take his exams in June 1941, the month when [[Operation Barbarossa|Germany invaded Russia]]. Joining the military was against the Communist [[party line (politics)|party line]] at the time. According to Williams, his Communist Party membership lapsed without him formally resigning.{{sfn|Williams|1979|p=52}}

When Williams joined the army, he was assigned to the [[Royal Corps of Signals]], which was a typical assignment for university undergraduates. He received initial training in military communications, but was reassigned to [[artillery]] and [[anti-tank]] weapons. He was chosen to serve as an officer in the Anti-Tank Regiment of the [[Guards Armoured Division]] in 1941–1945, being sent into early fighting in the [[Invasion of Normandy]] after the [[D-Day (military term)|D-Day]] [[Normandy Landings]]. He writes in ''Politics and Letters'', "I don't think the intricate chaos of that Normandy fighting has ever been recorded."{{sfn|Williams|1979|p=56}} He commanded a unit of four tanks and mentions losing touch with two of them while fighting against [[Waffen-SS]] [[Panzer]] forces in the [[Bocage]]. He never discovered what happened to them as a withdrawal of troops ensued.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Williams took part in the [[Western Front (World War II)|fighting from Normandy]] in 1944 and [[North-West Europe Campaign of 1944–1945|through Belgium and the Netherlands to Germany]] in 1945. There he was involved in liberating a smaller [[Nazi concentration camp]], which was afterwards used by the Allies to detain [[SS]] officers.<ref name="INGLIS">{{cite book|last1=Inglis|first1=Fred|title=Raymond Williams|date=1998|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0415187169|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_4pC-Fwd-PEC&dq=Raymond+Williams+Concentration+camp&pg=PA93}}</ref>

He was shocked to find that [[Bombing of Hamburg|Hamburg]] had suffered [[saturation bombing]] by the [[Royal Air Force]], not just [[Strategic bombing during World War II|military targets and docks]], as they had been told. He was expecting to be sent to Burma, but as his studies had been interrupted by the war, was instead granted Class B release, which meant immediate demobilisation. He returned to Cambridge, where he found that the student culture had changed from 1941, with the left-wing involvement much diminished.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

=== Adult education and early publications ===
Williams received his BA from Cambridge in 1946, and then served as a tutor in [[adult education]] at [[Oxford University]]'s [[Oxford University Department for Continuing Education|Delegacy for Extra-Mural Studies]] (1946-1961).<ref name="WWW" />{{sfn|Williams|1979|p=12}} Moving to [[Seaford, Sussex]], he gave [[Workers' Educational Association]] evening classes in East Sussex in English literature, drama, and later culture and environment. This allowed Williams to write in the mornings, beginning work on novels and what would become [[cultural studies]].

In 1946, he founded the review ''Politics and Letters'', a journal which he edited with Clifford Collins and [[Wolf Mankowitz]] until 1948. Williams published ''Reading and Criticism'' in 1950; he joined the editorial board of the new journal ''Essays in Criticism''.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=359}} In 1951, he was [[Conscription in the United Kingdom|recalled]] to the army as [[Territorial Army (United Kingdom)|a reservist]] to fight in the [[Korean War]]. He refused to go, registering as a [[conscientious objector]].<ref name="Inglis1995">{{cite book |first=Fred |last=Inglis |title=Raymond Williams |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xm3601WsHl0C&pg=PA81 |year=1995 |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |isbn=978-0-415-08960-9 |pages=81–}}</ref> He expected to be jailed for a month, but the Appeal Tribunal panel, which included a professor of classics, was convinced by his case and discharged him from further military obligations in May 1951.<ref>Smith (2008), p. 330.</ref>

Between 1946 and 1957, he was involved with the film-maker Michael Orrom, whom he had known in Cambridge. They co-wrote ''Preface to Film'', published in 1954, and Williams wrote the script for an experimental film, ''The Legend'', in 1955. This was rejected in July 1956 and he parted company with Orrom shortly afterwards.{{sfn|Smith|2008|pp=368–371}} He wrote a number of novels in this period, but only one, ''Border Country'', would be published.{{sfn|Smith|2008|loc=Chapter 7}}

Inspired by [[T. S. Eliot]]'s 1948 publication ''Notes towards the Definition of Culture'', Williams began exploring the concept of culture. He first outlined his argument that the concept emerged with the [[Industrial Revolution]] in the essay "The Idea of Culture", which resulted in the widely successful book ''[[Culture and Society]]'', published in 1958, in which he coined the term [[structure of feeling]]. This was followed in 1961 by ''[[The Long Revolution]]''. Williams's writings were taken up by the [[New Left]] and received a wide readership. He was also well known as a regular book reviewer for ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' newspaper. His years in adult education were an important experience and Williams was always something of an outsider at Cambridge University. Asked to contribute to a book called ''My Cambridge'', he began his essay by saying: "It was not my Cambridge. That was clear from the beginning."<ref>''My Cambridge'', ed. [[Ronald Hayman]], 2nd ed., London: Robson Books, 1986, p. 55.</ref>

=== Academic career ===
[[Image:Raymond Williams in 1972.jpg|left|200 px|thumb|Raymond Williams in 1972]]
On the strength of his books, Williams was invited to return to Cambridge in 1961, where he was elected a fellow of [[Jesus College, Cambridge]].<ref name="WWW"/> He eventually achieved an appointment in the [[Faculty of English, University of Cambridge]], first as Reader in Drama (1967–1974), and then as the university's first Professor of Drama (1974–1983).<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>J. P. Ward, ''Raymond Williams'', pg. 8.</ref> He was a visiting professor of political science at [[Stanford University]] in 1973, an experience he used to effect in his still useful book ''Television: Technology and Cultural Form'' (1974).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Raymond |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781134379378 |title=Television: Technology and Cultural Form |date=2003-10-20 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-203-42664-7 |editor-last=Williams |editor-first=Raymond |edition=3rd |location=London |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780203426647}}</ref>

A committed socialist, he was interested in the relations between [[language]], literature and society, and published many books, essays and articles on these and other issues. Among the main ones is ''[[The Country and the City]]'' (1973), where chapters on literature alternate with chapters on social history. His tightly written ''Marxism and Literature'' (1977) is mainly for specialists, but also sets out his approach to [[cultural studies]], which he called cultural materialism. The book was in part a response to [[structuralism]] in literary studies and pressure on Williams to make a more theoretical statement of his position, against criticisms that it was a humanist Marxism, based on unexamined assumptions about lived experience. He makes much use of the ideas of [[Antonio Gramsci]], though the book is uniquely Williams's and written in his characteristic voice. For a more accessible version, see ''Culture'' (1981-1982), which develops an argument about cultural sociology, which he hoped would become "a new major discipline".{{sfn|Williams|1981|p=233}} Introducing the US edition, Bruce Robbins identifies it as "implicit self-critique" of Williams's earlier ideas, and a basis on which "to conceive the oppositionality of the critic in a permanently fragmented society".<ref>{{cite book|first=Bruce |last=Robbins |chapter=Foreword |title=The Sociology of Culture |location=Chicago |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |date=1995 |pages=xi}}</ref>

=== Concepts and theory ===
==== Vocabulary ====
Williams was keen to establish the changing meanings of the vocabulary used in discussions of culture. He began with the word ''culture'' itself; his notes on 60 significant, often difficult words were to have appeared as an appendix to ''Culture and Society'' in 1958. This was not possible, and so an extended version with notes and short essays on 110 words appeared as ''[[Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society|Keywords]]'' in 1976. Those examined included "aesthetic", "bourgeois", "culture", "hegemony", "isms", "organic", "romantic", "status", "violence" and "work". A revised version in 1983 added 21 new words, including "anarchism", "ecology", "liberation" and "sex". Williams wrote that the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' (OED) "is primarily philological and etymological," whilst his work was on "meanings and contexts".<ref>{{cite book|first=Raymond |last=Williams |title=Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society |location=London |publisher=[[Fontana Books|Fontana]]/Croom Helm |date=1976 |page=16}}</ref> In 1981, Williams published ''Culture'', where the term, discussed at length, is defined as "a ''realized signifying system''"{{sfn|Williams|1981|p=207}} and supported by chapters on "the means of cultural production, and the process of cultural reproduction".{{sfn|Williams|1981|p=206}} Williams explored the word "freedom" in a short essay reviewing ''The Concept of Freedom'' by [[Christopher Caudwell]] (St John Sprigg), and in contrast, [[George Orwell]], both as comrades in the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Raymond |date=18 November 1965 |title="A Young Man's Papers" |work=Manchester Guardian}}</ref> Williams remarks that what Caudwell has to say about freedom is clearly said: that men are free through their social relations, and in escape from them, or in the illusion of escape. Williams continues: "in this sense it was right to organise this selection around this title: it is at any rate here that I feel closest to him, and farthest from [<nowiki/>[[George Orwell|George] Orwell]]."  

=== Debate ===
Williams wrote critically of [[Marshall McLuhan]]'s writings on technology and society. This is the background to a chapter in ''Television: Technology and Cultural Form'' (1974) called "The Technology and the Society", where Williams defended his visions against [[technological determinism]], focusing on the prevalence of social over technological in the development of human processes. Thus "Determination is a real social process, but never (as in some theological and some Marxist versions)... a wholly controlling, wholly predicting set of causes. On the contrary, the reality of determination is the setting of limits and the exertion of pressures, within which variable social practices are profoundly affected but never necessarily controlled."<ref>{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Raymond |title=Television: Technology and Cultural Form |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PXSLD8j0kb8C&pg=PA133 |access-date=28 May 2013 |year=1974 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London and New York |isbn=978-0-415-31456-5 |page=133}}</ref>

His book ''Modern Tragedy'' may be read as a response to ''The Death of Tragedy'' by the conservative literary critic [[George Steiner]]. Later, Williams was interested in the work of [[Pierre Bourdieu]], although he found it too pessimistic about the possibilities for social change.

=== Last years ===
Williams joined the Labour Party after he moved to Cambridge in 1961, but resigned in 1966 after the new majority Labour government had broken the seafarers' strike and introduced public expenditure cuts. He joined the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, and wrote the May Day Manifesto (published 1967), along with [[E. P. Thompson|Edward Thompson]] and [[Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)|Stuart Hall]].{{sfn|Williams|1979|pp=371–373}} Williams later became a [[Plaid Cymru]] member and a Welsh nationalist.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.english.plaidcymru.org/our-history/ |title=Our History |access-date=2011-08-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120904123852/http://www.english.plaidcymru.org/our-history/ |archive-date=4 September 2012 |df=dmy-all |website=[[Plaid Cymru]]}}</ref> He retired from Cambridge in 1983 and spent his last years in [[Saffron Walden]]. While there he wrote ''Loyalties'', a novel about a fictional group of upper-class radicals attracted to 1930s Communism.

Williams was working on ''[[People of the Black Mountains]]'', an experimental historical novel about people who lived or might have lived around the [[Black Mountains, Wales|Black Mountains]], his own part of Wales, told through flashbacks featuring an ordinary man in modern times, looking for his grandfather, who has not returned from a hill-walk. He imagines the region as it was and might have been. The story begins in the [[Paleolithic]], and would have come up to modern times, focusing on ordinary people. He had completed it to the [[Middle Ages]] by the time he died in 1988. The whole work was prepared for publication by his wife, Joy Williams, then published in two volumes with a [[postscript]] briefly describing what the remainder would have been. Almost all the stories were complete in typescript, mostly revised many times by the author. Only "The Comet" was left incomplete and needed small additions for a continuous narrative.

In the 1980s, Williams made important links to debates on feminism, peace, [[Ecology movement|ecology]] and social movements, and extended his position beyond what might be recognised as [[Marxism]]. He concluded that with many different societies in the world, there would be not one, but many socialisms.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}} Influenced partly by critical readings of [[Sebastiano Timpanaro]] and [[Rudolf Bahro]], he called for convergence between the labour movement and what was then called the ecology movement.

The Raymond Williams Society was founded in 1989 "to support and develop intellectual and political projects in areas broadly connected with Williams's work".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://raymondwilliams.co.uk/ |title=The Raymond Williams Society |website=The Raymond Williams Society}}</ref> Since 1998 it has published ''Key Words: A Journal of Cultural Materialism'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tree-genie.co.uk/raymondwilliams/PDF/Keywords1.pdf |title=Key Words: A journal of cultural materialism |access-date=2012-02-11 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718182359/http://www.tree-genie.co.uk/raymondwilliams/PDF/Keywords1.pdf |archive-date=18 July 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> which is "committed to developing the tradition of cultural materialism" he originated. 

The Raymond Williams Centre for Recovery Research opened at Nottingham Trent University in 1995.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntu.ac.uk/hum/centres/english/raymond_williams.html |title=English - Arts and Humanities - Nottingham Trent University |access-date=2012-02-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125040129/http://www.ntu.ac.uk/hum/centres/english/raymond_williams.html |archive-date=25 January 2012 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> 

The Raymond Williams Foundation (RWF) supports activities in adult education;  In 2024 the Raymond Williams Foundation offers grants and in 2022 celebrated Williams' centenary.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Raymond Williams Foundation |url=https://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk/grants }}</ref>  The Foundation was originally formed in 1988 as the Raymond Williams Memorial Fund.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Raymond Williams Foundation |url=http://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk/RWF.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220031857/http://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk/RWF.html |archive-date=20 February 2012 |access-date=2012-02-11 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> 

A collaborative research project building on Williams's investigation of cultural keywords called the "Keywords Project", initiated in 2006, is supported by Jesus College, University of Cambridge, and the University of Pittsburgh.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://keywords.pitt.edu/ |title=Keywords Project |publisher=Keywords.pitt.edu |date= |accessdate=2022-12-05}}</ref> Similar projects building on Williams's legacy include the 2005 publication, ''New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society'',<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/60544256 |title=New keywords : a revised vocabulary of culture and society |date=2005 |publisher=Blackwell Pub |isbn=1-4051-4132-8 |editor-last=Bennett |editor-first=Tony |location=Malden, MA |oclc=60544256 |editor-last2=Grossberg |editor-first2=Lawrence |editor-last3=Morris |editor-first3=Meaghan}}</ref> edited by the cultural-studies scholars Tony Bennett, Lawrence Grossberg, and Meaghan Morris, and the ''Keywords'' series from New York University Press including ''Keywords for American Cultural Studies.''<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://keywords.nyupress.org/american-cultural-studies/ |title=Keywords for American Cultural Studies |publisher=NYU Press |year=2020 |isbn=9781479822942 |editor-last=Burgett |editor-first=Bruce |edition=3rd |location=New York, USA |language=En |editor-last2=Hendler |editor-first2=Glenn}}</ref>

In 2007 a collection of Williams's papers was deposited at [[Swansea University]] by his daughter Merryn, a poet and author.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.swan.ac.uk/CREW/ResearchProjects/ResearchResourcesandArchives/TheRaymondWilliamsPapers/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080405214703/http://www.swan.ac.uk/CREW/ResearchProjects/ResearchResourcesandArchives/TheRaymondWilliamsPapers/|url-status=dead|title=CREW|archivedate=5 April 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tree-genie.co.uk/raymondwilliams/PDF/RWSNewsletter2.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009085729/http://www.tree-genie.co.uk/raymondwilliams/PDF/RWSNewsletter2.pdf|url-status=usurped|title=Raymond Williams Society Newsletter|archivedate=9 October 2011}}</ref>

== Works ==
=== Novels ===
* {{Cite book |title=Border Country |date=1988 |publisher=Hogarth |location=London |isbn=9780701208073 |edition=Reprinted |orig-year=First published 1960 |title-link=Border Country (novel)}}
* {{Cite book |title=Second Generation |date=1988 |publisher=Hogarth Press |location=London |isbn=9780701208080 |edition=Reprint |orig-year=First published 1964 |title-link=Second Generation (1964 novel)}}
* {{Cite book |title=The Volunteers |date=1985 |publisher=Hogarth |location=London |isbn=9780701210168 |edition=Reprinted |orig-year=First published 1978}}
* {{Cite book |title=The Fight for Manod |date=1988 |publisher=Hogarth |location=London |isbn=9780701208097 |edition=Reprinted |orig-year=First published 1979 |title-link=The Fight for Manod}}
* {{Cite book |title=Loyalties |date=1985 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |location=London |isbn=9780701128432 |title-link=Loyalties (novel)}}
* {{Cite book |title=People of the Black Mountains 1: The beginning |date=1989 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |location=London |isbn=9780701128456 |title-link=People of the Black Mountains}}
* {{Cite book |title=People of the Black Mountains 2: The Eggs of the Eagle |date=1990 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |location=London |isbn=9780701135645 |title-link=People of the Black Mountains}}

=== Literary and cultural studies ===
* {{Cite book |title=Reading and criticism |date=1950 |publisher=Frederick Muller |location=London |asin=B0000CHNS9 |oclc=443166104 |series=Man and Society Series}}
* {{Cite book |title=Drama from Ibsen to Eliot |date=1968 |publisher=Chatto and Windus |location=London |edition=Revised |orig-year=First published 1952 |oclc=439658303}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Raymond |last2=Orrom |first2=Michael |title=Preface to film |date=1954 |publisher=Film Drama Limited |location=London |oclc=982198642}}
* {{Cite book |title=Culture and Society |date=1963 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |location=New York |edition=New |orig-year=First published 1958 |oclc=654385116 |title-link=Culture and Society}} – new edition with new introduction
* {{Cite book |title=The Long Revolution |date=1965 |location=Harmondsworth |publisher=Penguin |orig-year=First published 1961 |oclc=876423987|title-link=The Long Revolution}} – reissued with additional footnotes
* {{Cite book |title=Communications |date=1973 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=Harmondsworth, Middlesex |isbn=9780140208313 |edition=3rd |orig-year=First published 1962 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/communications00will}} – translated into Spanish
* {{Cite book |title=The existing alternatives in communication |date=1962 |publisher=[[Fabian Society]] |location=London |url=https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/Documents/Detail/the-existing-alternatives-in-communications-1962/105500 |access-date=14 March 2025 |series=Socialism in the Sixties |oclc=81185356}}
* {{Cite book |title=Modern tragedy |date=1979 |publisher=Verso Editions |location=London |isbn=9780860917113 |edition=Rev. |orig-year=First published 1966}} – new edition, without play ''Koba'' and with new afterword
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=Hall |editor1-first=S. |editor2-last=Williams |editor2-first=R. |editor3-last=Thompson |editor3-first=E. P. |editor1-link=Stuart Hall (cultural theorist) |editor3-link=E. P. Thompson |title=New Left May Day manifesto |date=1967 |publisher=May Day Manifesto Committee |location=London |oclc=264038990}}
* {{Cite book |title=May Day Manifesto: 1968 |date=1968 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=Harmondsworth |oclc=490859142|edition=2nd}}
* {{Cite book |title=Drama in performance |date=1991 |publisher=[[Open University Press]] |location=Milton Keynes |isbn=9780335096589 |edition=Rev. |orig-year=First published 1954}}
* {{Cite book |title=Drama from Ibsen to Brecht |date=1993 |publisher=Hogarth Press |location=London |isbn=9780701210281 |edition=3rd imprint |orig-year=First published 1961}}
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=Williams |editor1-first=Raymond |title=The Pelican Book of English prose. Vol. 2, From 1780 to the present day |date=1973 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=Harmondsworth |oclc=750728593 |orig-year=First published 1969}}
* {{Cite book |title=The English novel from Dickens to Lawrence |date=1984 |publisher=Hogarth |location=London |isbn=9780701205584 |edition=Reprint |orig-year=First published 1970}}
* {{Cite book |title=Orwell |date=1991 |publisher=Fontana |location=London |isbn=9780006862277 |edition=3rd |series=[[Fontana Modern Masters]] |orig-year=First published 1971}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=R. |title=Base and superstructure in Marxist cultural theory |journal=[[New Left Review]] |volume=I |issue=82 |date=November–December 1973 |url=http://newleftreview.org/I/82/raymond-williams-base-and-superstructure-in-marxist-cultural-theory}}
* {{Cite book |title=The Country and the City |date=2011 |publisher=Spokesman Books |location=Nottingham, England |isbn=9780851247991 |orig-year=First published 1973 |title-link=The Country and the City}} – translated into Spanish and Portuguese
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=Williams |editor1-first=Joy |editor2-last=Williams |editor2-first=Raymond |title=D.H. Lawrence on education |date=1973 |publisher=[[Penguin Education]] |location=Harmondsworth, Middlesex |isbn=9780140812022}}
* {{Cite book |title=George Orwell: a collection of critical essays |date=1974 |publisher=Prentice-Hall |location=Englewood Cliffs, N.J. |isbn=9780136477013 |series=Twentieth Century Views}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Raymond |editor1-last=Williams |editor1-first=Ederyn |editor1-link=Ederyn Williams |title=Television technology and cultural form |date=2003 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London |isbn=978-0415314565 |edition=Routledge classics |orig-year=First published 1971 |series=Technosphere Series}} – translated into Traditional Chinese, Italian, Korean and Swedish
* {{Cite book |title=Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society |date=2011 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=9780203124949 |series=Fontana Communications Series |orig-year=First published 1976 |title-link=Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society}}
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=Axton |editor1-first=Marie |editor2-last=Williams |editor2-first=Raymond |title=English drama: forms and development: essays in honour of Muriel Clara Bradbrook |date=2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780521142557 |orig-year=First published 1977}}
* {{Cite book |title=Marxism and literature |url=https://archive.org/details/marxismliteratur00will_0 |url-access=registration |date=1977 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Toronto |isbn=9780198760610 |series=Marxist Introductions Series}} – translated into Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Korean
* {{Cite book |title=Politics and Letters: Interviews with New Left Review |date=1981 |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |location=London |isbn=9780860917359 |orig-year=First published 1979 |title-link=Politics and Letters: Interviews with New Left Review}}
* {{Cite book |title=Problems in materialism and culture: selected essays |date=1997 |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |location=London |isbn=9781859841136 |orig-year=First published 1980}} – reissued as {{Cite book |title=Culture and materialism: selected essays |date=2010 |publisher=Verso |location=London |isbn=9781844676637 |edition=New |orig-year=First published 2005}}
* ''Culture'', Fontana New Sociology Series, Glasgow, Collins, 1981. US edition, The Sociology of Culture, New York, Schocken, 1982 – translated into Spanish
* {{Cite book |last1=Rossi-Landi |first1=Ferruccio |display-authors=etal |editor1-last=William |editor1-first=Raymond |title=Contact: human communication and its history |date=1981 |publisher=Thames and Hudson |location=New York |isbn=9780500012390}}
* {{Cite book |title=Socialism and ecology |date=1983 |publisher=Socialist Environment and Resources Associated |location=London |oclc=10043180}}
* {{Cite book |title=Cobbett |date=1983 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=9780192875754 |edition=1st |series=Past Masters series}}
* {{Cite book |title=Towards 2000 |date=1985 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=9780140225341 |orig-year=First published 1981}}
* {{Cite book |title=Writing in society |date=1983 |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |location=London |isbn=9780860910725}}
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=Williams |editor1-first=Merryn |editor2-last=Williams |editor2-first=Raymond |title=John Clare: selected poetry and prose |date=1986 |publisher=Methuen |location=London |isbn=9780416411201 |edition=1st}}
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=O'Connor |editor1-first=Alan |title=Raymond Williams on television: selected writings |date=2011 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London |isbn=9780415509299 |orig-year=First published 1988}}
* {{Cite book |title=What I came to say |date=2013 |publisher=Cornerstone Digital |location=London |isbn=9781473505032 |orig-year=First published 1989}}
* {{Cite book |title=Resources of Hope: Culture, Democracy, Socialism |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |location=London |date=1989}}
* {{Cite book |title=The Politics of Modernism. Against the New Conformists |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |location=London |date=1989}} – translated into Spanish
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=Higgins |editor1-first=John |title=The Raymond Williams reader |date=2001 |publisher=Blackwell |location=Oxford |isbn=9780631213116}}
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=Milner |editor1-first=Andrew |editor1-link=Andrew Milner |title=Tenses of imagination: Raymond Williams on science fiction, utopia and dystopia |date=2010 |publisher=Peter Lang |location=New York |isbn=9783039118267}}

=== Short stories ===
* "Red Earth", ''Cambridge Front'', No. 2, 1941
* "Sack Labourer", ''English Short Story 1'', W. Wyatt, ed., London: Collins, 1941
* "Sugar", R. Williams, M. Orrom and M. J. Craig, eds, ''Outlook: a Selection of Cambridge Writings'', Cambridge, 1941, pp.&nbsp;7–14
* "This Time", ''New Writing and Daylight'', No. 2, 1942–1943, J. Lehmann, ed., London: Collins, 1943, pp.&nbsp;158–164
* "A Fine Room to be Ill In", ''English Story 8'', W. Wyatt (ed.), London, 1948
* "The Writing on the Wall", ''[[Colours of a New Day: Writing for South Africa]]'', [[Sarah LeFanu]] and Stephen Hayward, eds, London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1990

=== Drama ===
* ''[[Koba (play)|Koba]]'' (1966), ''Modern Tragedy'', London, Chatto and Windus
* ''A Letter from the Country'', BBC Television, April 1966, ''Stand'', 12 (1971), pp.&nbsp;17–34
* ''Public Enquiry'', BBC Television, 15 March 1967, ''Stand'', 9 (1967), pp.&nbsp;15–53

=== Introductions ===
* Seven-page introduction to ''[[All Things Betray Thee]]'', a novel by [[Gwyn Thomas (novelist)|Gwyn Thomas]]

== See also ==
* [[Anti-capitalism]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Dai |year=2008 |title=Raymond Williams: a Warrior's Tale |publisher=Parthian Books |isbn=9781905762996}}
* {{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Raymond |year=1979 |title=Politics and Letters: Interviews with New Left Review |location=London |publisher=New Left Books |isbn=978-0860910008}}
* {{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Raymond |year=1981 |title=Culture |location=London |publisher=[[Fontana Books]]}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
=== Book-length treatments ===
* Maria Elisa Cevasco, ''Para ler Raymond Williams'' (Portuguese of To Read Raymond Williams) São Paulo, Paz e Terra, 2001
* [[Eagleton, Terry]], editor. ''Raymond Williams: Critical Perspectives''. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1989
* J. E. T. Ethridge, ''Raymond Williams: Making Connections''. New York: Routledge, 1994
* Jan Gorak, ''The Alien Mind of Raymond Williams''. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1988
* John Higgins, ''Raymond Williams: Literature, Marxism and Cultural Materialism''. London and New York, Routledge, 1999
* [[Fred Inglis]], ''Raymond Williams''. London and New York: Routledge, 1995
* Paul Jones, "Raymond Williams's Sociology of Culture: A Critical Reconstruction". London: Palgrave, 2004
* David Lusted, ed., ''Raymond Williams: Film, TV, Culture'', London: British Film Institute, 1989
* Don Milligan, [http://www.studiesinanti-capitalism.net/RAYMONDWILLIAMS.html ''Raymond Williams: Hope and Defeat in the Struggle for Socialism''], Studies in Anti-Capitalism, 2007
* [[Andrew Milner]], ''Re-Imagining Cultural Studies: The Promise of Cultural Materialism'', London: Sage, 2002
* W. John Morgan and Peter Preston, eds. ''Raymond Williams: Politics, Education, Letters'', Macmillan Press, {{ISBN|0-333-48587-4}} and St Martin's Press, {{ISBN|978-0-312-08357-1}}, 1993
* Alan O'Connor, ''Raymond Williams: Writing, Culture, Politics''. Oxford and New York: Blackwell, 1989
* Alan O'Connor, ''Raymond Williams''. Critical Media Studies. Rowman and Littlefield, 2005
* Tony Pinkney, ed., ''Raymond Williams''. Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, UK: Seren Books, 1991
* ''Politics and Letters'' (London, New Left Books, 1979) gives the author's own account of his life and work.
* Dai Smith, ''Raymond Williams: A Warrior's Tale''. Cardigan: Parthian, 2008
* Nick Stevenson, ''Culture, Ideology, and Socialism: Raymond Williams and E.P. Thompson''. Aldershot, England: Avebury, 1995
* Nicolas Tredell, ''Uncancelled Challenge: the work of Raymond Williams''. Nottingham: Paupers' Press, 1990. {{ISBN|0-946650-16-0}}
* J. P. Ward, ''Raymond Williams'' in the Writers of Wales series. [[University of Wales]] Press, 1981
* Daniel Williams, ed., ''Who Speaks for Wales?: Nation, Culture, Identity'', Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2003
* Stephen Woodhams, ''History in the Making: Raymond Williams, Edward Thompson and Radical Intellectuals 1936–1956'', Merlin Press 2001 {{ISBN|978-0850364941}}

=== Articles ===
* Craig, Cairns, ''Peripheries'', in ''[[Cencrastus]]'' No. 9, Summer 1982, pp.&nbsp;3–9, {{issn|0264-0856}}
* {{cite journal |last=Phillips |first=Jacob |date=January 2021 |title=Raymond Williams' Reading of Newman's ''The Idea of a University'' |journal=New Blackfriars |volume=102 |issue=1097 |pages=108–122 |doi=10.1111/nbfr.12564 |s2cid=225716339 |doi-access=free }}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.raymondwilliams.co.uk The Raymond Williams Society] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190506104850/https://raymondwilliams.co.uk/ |date=6 May 2019 }}
* [http://blog.archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/2017/10/02/raymond-williams-papers-at-the-richard-burton-archives-swansea-university/ Raymond Williams Archive at Swansea University]
* [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/W/htmlW/williamsray/williamsray.htm Museum of Broadcast Communications article about Raymond Williams] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130922135530/http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/W/htmlW/williamsray/williamsray.htm |date=22 September 2013 }}
* [http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Raymond-Williams-in-retrospect-5615 Maurice Cowling on Raymond Williams]
* [http://pubpages.unh.edu/~dml3/880williams.htm Selections from ''Keywords'']
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120125040129/http://www.ntu.ac.uk/hum/centres/english/raymond_williams.html Raymond Williams Centre for Recovery Research]
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4736 Raymond Williams page at ''The Literary Encyclopedia'']
* [http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n80–36657 Raymond Williams Worldcat Identity]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071227082106/http://www.100welshheroes.com/en/biography/raymondwilliams Raymond Williams at 100 Welsh Heroes]
* [http://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk The Raymond Williams Foundation]
* [http://keywords.pitt.edu/videos.html Videos of Raymond Williams] – Keywords Project – University of Pittsburgh and Jesus College, Cambridge
* The [http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/special-collections/explore/collection/raymond-williams-works Raymond Williams' book collection] is housed at Special Collections and Archives, Cardiff University.

{{British New Left}}
{{Authority control}}

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