Charles Williams was born in San Angelo, Texas. He served in the US Merchant Marine for ten years before quitting to marry. He worked as an electronics inspector first for RCA in Galveston, Texas, and later at Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington State through the end of World War II. He and his wife then relocated to San Francisco, where he worked for Mackay Radio company until the publication of his first novel, Hill Girl, in 1951. The novel was such a success that he became a full-time writer.