The below were mostly rescued from Google, 19 August 2005; somebody needed to do this. Needs more organization & updating. Compiled by Dan Visel, email dbvisel AT gmail.com. I am not, of course, William S. Wilson, just a friend.
4 February 2016: Bill Wilson passed away on Monday 1 February 2016. Like many others, I will miss him tremendously. I’ll gather notes and post them here as I find them or as people send them. His family’s announcement:
Dear Friends,
We are writing with the sad news that our father, Bill Wilson, died on Monday February 1st, 2016. He suffered a swift heart attack following cancer surgery. We were relieved that his daughter-in-law Mary was by his side at the time.
He is of course deeply missed by his family, including our spouses and partners—Mary, Stephanie Grant, and Aseel Sawalha—and Bill’s four grandchildren—Jackson, Alex, Augusta, and Josephine.
There will be a small, private memorial gathering for his family and friends, and we warmly invite you to join us there: Sunday, February 7th, 2016, from 4–6 pm in Reddens Funeral Home (325 West 14th Street, New York, 10014). Neither RSVP nor flowers are necessary.
Please know that other well-wishers will be invited to join us in a larger birthday celebration memorial in early April this year.
The first formal obituary is copied below and will be published in the New York Times this Friday and Sunday.
With warm regards,
Kate Wilson, Ara Wilson, Andrew Wilson
William S. Wilson III (1932–2016)
William S. Wilson, 83, beloved brother, father and grandfather, died in Manhattan on Monday, February 1, 2016 from cardiac arrest. Born in Baltimore, April 7, 1932, he was raised in Maryland, attended the University of Virginia for his B.A., and Yale University for his Ph.D. He taught college as a professor of English in Queens College, City University of New York from 1962 until his retirement in the early 1990s. While raising three children in Chelsea, he published a collection of short stories, Why I Don’t Write Like Franz Kafka (1975), and the novel Birthplace (1982). The son of assemblage artist May Wilson, he was deeply involved in the post-war New York art world, the subject of his numerous published essays. Survivors include his sister, Betty Jane Butler, children Katherine, Ara and Andrew and grandchildren Jack, Alex, Augusta and Josephine. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be offered in his honor to PBS public television or the High Line or the Baltimore Museum. A celebratory birthday memorial is planned for early April, 2016, in Manhattan.
Books
(See this LibraryThing page.)
- Why I Don’t Write Like Franz Kafka. Ecco Press, 1977; FC2 2003. FC2 page. On Amazon, LibraryThing.
- Birthplace: moving into nearness, North Point Press, 1982. On Amazon, LibraryThing.
- Ray Johnson Ray Johnson. PDF, 5.4Mb. 1977 Between Books edition. On Catnyp (NYPL), LibraryThing.
- Ray Johnson John Willenbecher. PDF, 8.3Mb. A second Between Books edition, from some time later. On LibraryThing.
- Black Mountain College Dossiers No. 4: Ray Johnson, includes With Ray: the art of friendship. On Amazon, LibraryThing.
Stories/articles
- Paris Review 70 (summer 1977), includes “Conveyance: ‘The story I would never want Bill Wilson to read'”. On Amazon, Bookfinder, LibraryThing.
- Antaeus 19 (autumn 1975); includes Joseph McElroy’s “Wilson’s Métier,” on Wilson’s fiction. On Amazon, Bookfinder, LibraryThing.
- Antaeus 20 (winter 1976). On Amazon, Bookfinder, LibraryThing.
- Antaeus 21/22 (spring/summer 1976). On Amazon, Bookfinder.
- TriQuarterly 34 (fall 1975), includes “Desire,” pp. 58–61. On Amazon, Bookfinder.
- Ray Johnson: Correspondences, ed. Donna De Salvo, Flammarion, 1999. Includes “Ray Johnson: the one and the other.” On Amazon, LibraryThing.
- William S. Wilson, “Exegetical Grammar in the House of Fame,” English Language Notes 1 (1964), 244–288.
- William S. Wilson, “Scholastic Logic in Chaucer’s House of Fame,” Chaucer Review, i, 3 (Winter 1967), 181–184.
- William S. Wilson, “Picasso,” Art Journal, 56, 1 (Spring 1997), pp.88–93.
Online documents
- The Big Book. Review of The Big Book by Alison Knowles from Art in America, referenced here.
- The Big Book. Another review of The Big Book by Alison Knowles, this one from the Journal of Typographical Research.
Appearances
- Short biography at FC2
- Mention in a Joseph Taibbi review at EBR
- Review of Black Mountain College Dossiers No. 4: Ray Johnson and Daniel Wenk’s The Truth on Tape
- Bits of a letter feature in a Joseph Taibbi piece on Daniel Wenk
- A mention of Why I Don’t . . . from the same piece
- A mention in Trey Strecker’s “The Mind Fields of Joseph McElroy”
- A mention on mail art & artists
- Ray Johnson bibliography
- Another Ray Johnson bibliography, compiled with Bill’s help
- A third Ray Johnson bibliography
- Appearance of “interim” (published in Anteus 25, 1977) in a mammoth science fiction bibliography
- Mention of WSW’s review of Ernest Samuels’s Bernard Berenson: The Making of a Legend in American Book Review, Vol. 11, No. 4, Sept/Oct 1989
- Mention of WSW’s review of Jay David Bolter’s Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing and George P. Landow’s Hypertext in American Book Review, Vol. 14, No. 2, June/July 1992
- Birthplace mentioned as a nominee for the PEN/Faulkner award in 1983
- Ruud Janssen/John Held Jr interview mentioning WSW
- Matthew Rose: “Some Assembly Required” (about Ray Johnson, includes WSW correspondence)
- Jeanne Marie Kusina: “The Evolution and Revolutions of the Networked Art Aesthetic” (about Ray Johnson, includes WSW correspondence)
- Bill Wilson failing to appear in How to Draw a Bunny
- WSW’s name appearing in Ray Johnson’s work
- Brief mention of WSW’s writing for Artforum in a piece by Joseph Masheck
- Press release for a show at the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea; the catalogue includes an essay by WSW on Massimo Bartolini
- A mention in The Economist‘s review of Michael Kimmelman’s The Accidental Masterpiece: on the art of life and vice versa
- Excerpt from Robert L. Schwarz’s Why I Don’t Write Like William S. Wilson
- Mention w/r/t to Ray Johnson’s green shoe box at warholstars.org
- Another mention at warholstars.org, this time including Valerie Solanas
- Several mentions in a John Suiter article on Ray Johnson, originally from the Independent on Sunday
- Excerpt of a review (from Art in America, July/August 1968) of Alison Knowles’s The Big Book (reprinted in full here).
A compilation of postings rescued from the Web, vaguely sorted.
Ray Johnson
- “NY Correspondance School” (originally 1966, new introduction 2004)
- “Ray Johnson and the Number 13”
- “Reference and Relation” (excerpt from Ray Johnson, 1977)
- “Reference and Relation” (the above, in Hungarian, trans. Fordította Kiss-Pál Klára)
- response to auction of Ray Johnson’s work on eBay
- A discussion about How to Draw a Bunny and objectivity
- Photographs of Ray Johnson by Wm. S. Wilson
- Ray Johnson postcards sent by WSW
May Wilson
Marcel Duchamp
- Duchamp & Leonardo da Vinci
- Duchamp & Baroness Else von Freytag, although mostly about his urinal
- More on the urinal
- Duchamp & mass with particular reference to “In Advance of a Broken Arm”
- Duchamp & “hype”, Warhol, and Wallace Stevens.
- (makes reference to this piece, about Duchamp & Richard Serra)
- Duchamp & chess
- More Duchamp & chess
- Duchamp & chess, no. 3
- Duchamp’s urinal/fountain
- Duchamp’s urinal
- More Duchamp’s urinal
- Duchamp & architecture
- Duchamp, art & space
- Duchamp & signatures
- More on Duchamp & signatures in art
- Duchamp & self portraits
- Duchamp & self portraits, further
- Duchamp & Ferdinand de Saussure
- Henri Pierre Roché
Andy Warhol
Christo & Jeanne-Claude
Pablo Picasso
- Review of Picasso at MOMA, originally from Art Journal, Spring 1997
Art & artists (more generally)
- “The End of Exemptions for Beauty” (at EBR, currently down, archive here.)
- Response to “The End of Exemptions” by Nick Spenser (at EBR, currently down, archive here.)
- “Capitalist Construction”, response to Nick Spenser (at EBR, currently down, archive here.)
- Artists & pseudonyms
- on Modernism
- on self-portraits
- on Modernism & Giovanni de Paolo’s Paradise
- The shock (or lack thereof) of the avant-garde
Joseph McElroy
- “Joseph McElroy: fathoming the field” (Electronic Book Review)
Hardt & Negri
Traces
- boklist.blogspot.com, a blog devoted to book & mail art, promises future postings.
- A note on Clive Philpott
- http://www.mail-archive.com/ma-network@yahoogroups.com/msg00004.html
- http://www.mail-archive.com/ma-network@yahoogroups.com/msg00071.html
- http://www.mail-archive.com/ma-network@yahoogroups.com/msg00099.html
- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0888656122/102-9330598-9715358?v=glance
- http://mailartforums.crosses.net/read.php4?f=3&i=44&t=44&v=t
- http://mailartforums.crosses.net/read.php4?f=3&i=57&t=57
- http://www.marcelduchamp.net/wwwboardarchive/messages/52.html
- http://www.marcelduchamp.net/wwwboardarchive2/messages/383.html
- Duchamp & Francois Le Lionnais
- Duchamp & puns: references
- The Pollack estate & painting authentication
- A piece by Balla at the Centro Duchamp
- The symbolism of hair.
- Referenced in a piece on Eva Hesse (with particular reference to “Eva Hesse: on the threshold of illusions”)
Wilson-confusion
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…Just re-read “Art is a Jealous Lover”….
…Even better now = vintage wine.
All best,
-Aviva Green
Hi, I wrote my Master’s thesis on Ray Johnson and met with William S. Wilson several times to discuss his friendship with Ray. He was extremely helpful and wonderful. I have my thesis up on a blog if you want to post the link -http://ditollalove.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-graduate-thesis-just-wanted-it-to-at.html
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Rest in peace Bill, it was a joy knowing you.
You couldn’t hide the noise from Bill.
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I took two courses from William S. Wilson III at Queens College back in the early 1960s; an introductory English course and a course on medieval English literature. I still remember his dry sense of humor. I wound up spending my career as a college professor (something that would probably have astounded him and some of my other professors) writing about jokes and humor, and only found my way to this website while in the midst of writing yet another essay on the subject. I was remembering a question he asked one of the students in the introductory class. He asked the student–seemingly out of nowhere–“Mr. Weiss (I still remember the student’s name for some reason), what do you call two men who love each other?” Remember this was back in the 60s, and while Mr. Weiss was hemming and hawing and struggling to come up with an appropriate answer, Professor Wilson said in his very calm voice, “Christians, Mr. Weiss, Christians.” I still remember him as a young man and was thinking about him as I was penning yet another essay on the analysis and interpretation of jokes. Teaching is a difficult profession. You often do not get to see the impact you have on your students, and often the students are unaware of the impact you have had on them.