William E. Wilson (writer)

For other people named William Wilson, see William Wilson (disambiguation).

William E. Wilson (1906–1988) was the author of eleven books, including The Wabash, and was a professor of fiction writing and literature at Indiana University from 1950 to 1972.

Biography

William E. Wilson was born in 1906, spending much of his childhood in or around Evansville, Indiana. Wilson graduated from Harvard University, served as a lieutenant-commander in the U.S. Navy, and spent two years as a Fulbright Scholar at Aix-Marseille University, Grenoble and Nice, France before landing at Baltimore, Maryland where he became Assistant Editor of the Baltimore Sun. He married Ellen Janet Cameron.

In 1950, he left the Baltimore Sun, joining the staff of Indiana University where he became a professor of fiction writing and literature until his retirement in 1972. Indiana University has a William E. Wilson Fellowship in Fiction named in his honor.

His first wife, Ellen Janet Cameron, died in 1976. He married Hana Benes in 1977, and died in 1988.

Bibliography

Non-Fiction

• The Wabash, Rivers of America Series; Farrar & Rinehart, New York; 1940
• Big Knife: The Life of John Rogers Clark, Farrar & Rinehart, New York; 1941
• On the Sunny Side of a One Way Street: Humorous Impressions of a Hoosier Boyhood W.W. Norton, New York, 1958
• The Angel and the Serpent: The Story of New Harmony, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 1964
• Indiana: A History, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 1966

Fiction

• Crescent City Simon & Schuster, New York, 1947
• The Strangers, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1952
• The Raiders, Rinehart & Company, New York; 1955
• Everyman Is My Father, Saturday Review Press, New York, 1973

Children’s

• Shooting Star: The Story of Tecumseh, Farrar & Rinehart, New York; 1942
• Abe Lincoln of Pigeon Creek, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1949

Sources

• American Book Exchange
• University of Indiana
• Indiana Authors