Joseph M. Williams (1933–2008) was a professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago, where he spent decades teaching writers how to think about their own prose.
He's best known for Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, a book that grew out of his famous course "The Little Red Schoolhouse" and has gone through thirteen editions since 1981.
What distinguishes Williams among writing teachers was his refusal to treat grammar rules as sacred. He argued that clarity is not a matter of following arbitrary conventions but an ethical obligation to one's reader, and he built a practical, layered system for diagnosing and revising muddy sentences.
His work has influenced generations of students, academics, and professionals, and his book remains one of the most widely assigned texts on writing style in American universities.