Espy Williams was one of Louisiana's best-known playwrights of the latter 19th and early 20th century. Descended from people who had long been prominent in education and law, Williams found it necessary to leave school to begin work in insurance and banking. He did some writing while establishing himself in business. By the time he was sixteen years old, he had written two plays. However, he destroyed them upon the advice of his father.

He printed his first play, “Eugene Aram" - a tragedy, when he was 22, and was still writing when he died at the age of 56 in 1908. The last play he wrote was "Marlowe: The Buried Name." The play was dated July 25, 1908, and has a note at the bottom of the last page: "Although an epilogue is promised, three years later, the manuscript ends here. Seemingly Williams did not live long enough to write it."

Williams traveled to many major cities throughout the United States and Europe, but New Orleans was his home. His plays and librettos were produced in London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, St. Louis and other large cities.

His tragedy "Unorna" was produced in London in 1902, making him the first New Orleanian to have a play produced in that city. He was also the first New Orleanian to have a work put on by the Metropolitan Opera Company when they produced his comic opera "A Royal Joke" in 1901.

He is the only Louisiana playwright listed in Who's Who in America from 1885 to 1920, and the only Louisiana literary figure listed in the 1905 edition of A Dictionary of American Authors.