Anna Williams (poet)

Anna Williams by Frances Reynolds

Anna Williams (1706 – 6 September 1783) was a Welsh poet. She was a close companion of the writer Samuel Johnson, who said he was "very desolate" when she died. Cataracts left Williams blind or visually impaired in the 1740s, when Johnson took her under his wing and helped to support her. She joined his household until her death, apart from an interval of six years. In return, Williams supervised Johnson's household management and expenses. Besides poetry, she wrote an unfinished dictionary of philosophical terms and translated and published a French biography of the emperor Julian.