Ben Ames Williams (1889 - 1953)

Genre: General Fiction

A native Mississippian (born Macon, MS, 7 March 1889) who spent his childhood in Ohio, Williams graduated from Dartmouth in 1910, worked as a reporter for the Boston American from 1910-1916, and went on to live outside of Boston, summering in North Searsmont and Blue Hill and to write over 35 novels and 400 short stories, many set in the mythical village of Fraternity, Maine (similar to his home in the Searsmont area), as well as some histories and other non-fiction works. His wife, Florence Trafton Talpey of York, Maine, was descended from a long line of sea captains. Williams received honorary degrees in American literature from Dartmouth College and Colby College.

Works include:

• All the Brothers Were Valiant (1919)
• The Sea Bride (1919)
• The Great Accident (1920)
• Evered (1921)
• Black Pawl (1922)
• Thrifty Stock and Other Stories (1923)
• Audacity (1924)
• The Rational Hind (1925)
• The Silver Forest (1926; also published as A Killer Among Us, 1957): Murder mystery set at a wilderness lodge in Maine
• Immortal Longings (1927)
• Splendor (1927)
• The Dreadful Night (1928)
• The Bellmer Mystery (1929; also released as Death on Scurvy Street (1949)
• Great Oaks (1930)
• An End to Mirth (1931)
• Letters from Fraternity (1931; editor; these letters were written to Williams by A.L. 'Bert' McCorrison, who was the inspiration for 'Chet McAusland' in many of the Fraternity stories)
• Pirate's Purchase (1931)
• Honeyflow (1932)
• Money Musk(1932; published in 1948 as Lady in Peril)
• Mischief (1933)
• Pascal's Mill (1933)
• Hostile Valley (1934; later printed as Valley Vixen, 1948)
• Small Town Girl (1935)
• Crucible and It's A Free Country (1937)
• The Strumpet Sea (1938): Set in the 1800s, a sweeping novel of the romantic South Seas involving a ship on the verge of mutiny and a beautiful woman desired by three men.
• Thread of Sea (1939)
• Come Spring (1940; novel based on the records of Union, Maine; reissued 2000)
• The Strange Woman (1941): Novel of Bangor, Maine, and the Penobscot area from the War of 1812 until after the Civil War, during the boom in Maine lands and the great harvest of Maine pine.
• Time of Peace: Sept. 26, 1930 - Dec. 7, 1941 (1942): A historical novel about the minds of Americans and the complete change they had to make when WW II started; a moving story about a father and son in the decade that ended with Pearl Harbor.
• Amateurs at War: The American Soldier in Action (1943)
• Leave Her To Heaven (1944): His most well-known novel, the basis for the 1945 Gene Tierney film, a sinister story about a woman who loves people to death.
• House Divided (1947): A Virginia story of the Civil War
• Fraternity Village (1949; short stories set in the Searsmont area)
• The Diary from Dixie (1949)
• Owen Glen (1950): Set in a small town in the Southern Ohio fields in the late 1890s, as the U.S. is entering the war with Spain.
• The Unconquered (1953)
• The Happy End (1991)

Williams also edited A Diary from Dixie (1949; written by Mary Boykin Chesnut) and wrote the introduction to The Kenneth Roberts Reader (1945).

The Mississippi Writers and Musicians Project of Starkville High School in Mississippi has a webpage about Williams, with a list of works, a biography, a short timeline, and a number of links for more info on Williams. Williams died on 4 Feb. 1953.


Last Update: 05/30/2007

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