At the end of the war, Williams moved to Denver, Colorado, and enrolled in the University of Denver, receiving Bachelor of Arts (1949) and Master of Arts (1950) degrees. During his time at the University of Denver, his first two books were published, "Nothing But the Night" (1948), a novel depicting the terror and waywardness resulting from an early traumatic experience, and "The Broken Landscape" (1949), a collection of poetry. Upon completing his MA, Williams enrolled at the University of Missouri, where he taught and worked on his Ph.D. in English literature, which he obtained in 1954. In the fall of 1955, Williams returned to the University of Denver as an assistant professor, becoming director of the creative-writing program. His second novel, "Butcher's Crossing" (Macmillan, 1960) depicts frontier life in 1870s Kansas.