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165:, doing grunt work in the beginning and eventually writing and editing. He attended Dartmouth College and upon graduation in 1910 was offered a job teaching English at a boys' school in Connecticut. He telegraphed his father seeking career advice, but his handwriting was terrible and the telegraph company clerk mistook "teaching" for "traveling", and the father, not wanting his son to become a traveling businessman, advised him not to take the job. Richard Cary says it later saved Williams from "a purgatory of grading endless, immature English 'themes'" and propelled him "toward a career as one of the most popular storytellers of his time".
338:, was the most comprehensive edition for several decades. Recent commentators have noted that "his lack of scholarly acumen was alternately hailed by reviewers and lamented by academic critics, but Williams's work on the edition signaled his unwavering immersion in Civil War history." Steven Stowe of Indiana University explained that "Ben Ames Williams, a writer of popular fiction, brought out an edition of Chesnut’s diary in 1949, now known as one of the most extravagant escapades of editorial overreaching."
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174:. Williams worked hard reporting for the local newspaper, but only did this for income; his heart lay with magazine fiction. Each night he worked on his fiction writing with the aspiration that one day, his stories would support himself, his wife, Florence Talpey, and their children, Roger, Ben, and Penelope.
341:
Ben Ames
Williams died on February 4, 1953, in Brookline, Massachusetts after suffering a heart attack while participating in a curling contest at the Brookline Country Club. He was survived by his wife, three children, and his mother. His wife survived to 1970, and self-published a biography of her
214:
represented an
Olympus of a sort to him and his contemporaries. To be gathered into its pantheon of authors, to be accepted three or five or eight (and eventually twenty-one) times in a year constituted "a seal of approval and a personal vindication", and it certainly helped his career. One of his
234:
tended to be focused on the business environment. Such stories of his as "His Public" complemented the business slant of the Post. Williams became "identified in later years with rural Maine" because so many of his stories were set there. He owned a summer home there, and grew fond of the land
235:
because he spent so much of his free time in Maine with friend A.L. McCorrison. Williams is perhaps most famous for creating the fictional town of
Fraternity, located in rural Maine. 125 of his short stories were set in Fraternity, and they were most popular in the
114:(March 7, 1889 – February 4, 1953) was an American novelist and writer of short stories; he wrote hundreds of short stories and over 30 novels. Among his novels are
219:, which provoked an outpouring of 2,000 letters to the Post asking for a solution to the problem. He published 135 short stories, 35 serials, and seven articles for the
275:. His writing traversed a wide range of genres and evinced considerable expertise in a number of divergent fields. Other films based on the writing of Williams are
327:
and the trend toward shorter fiction, a tough mold for the often-verbose
Williams. This transition from magazine culture enabled him to focus on novel-writing.
323:
in addition to the stories he published in other magazines that same year. There were two main factors contributing to his slow fade from the spotlight: the
1050:
865:
Rohrbach, A. (2007), "The Diary May Be from Dixie but the Editor Is Not: Mary
Chestnut and Southern Print History," Textual Cultures, 2(1): 101-118.
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Stowe, Steven M. (2018), "Keep the Days: Reading the Civil War
Diaries of Southern Women," at 14 (Univ. of North Carolina Press).
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The mid-1920s were the peak of
Williams' short-story-writing career. In 1926, he published an impressive 21 stories in the
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Although there generally is not a common theme running through
Williams' work, the pieces he contributed to the
58:
800:. American Short-Story Writers, 1910-1945. Second Series. Vol. 102. Detroit, MI: Gale. pp. 358–365.
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Just after his birth, he and his parents moved to
Jackson, Ohio. As his father was owner and editor of the
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856:(ed. Ben Ames Williams), xii + 572 pp. (1949, Houghton Mifflin Co.; reprinted 1980, Harvard Univ. Press)
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793:
210:. Richard Cary has highlighted the privilege of being printed in the pages of this mammoth magazine: "
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334:(1823–1886), a Confederate wife; although others had published shorter editions, his version, titled
194:
150:, to Daniel Webster Williams and Sarah Marshall Ames. He was the grand-nephew of Confederate General
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took him, other magazines began eagerly seeking
Williams to submit his fiction to their magazines.
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was always upset that there was too much character and not enough plot in these stories
132:(1953). He was published in many magazines, but the majority of his stories appeared in
307:
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161:, he grew up around writing, printing, and editing. In high school he worked for the
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for distribution to servicemen and women serving overseas during World War II.
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A number of his novels were turned into films, the more popular of these being
283:
754:
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932:
Florence T. Williams, "All About Da," iv + 293 pp. (priv. publ., 1963)
690:. Vol. 9. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 463–464.
603:"Found 1 Results | Dartmouth Library Archives & Manuscripts"
990:
215:
stories in 1926 included a notorious mathematical puzzle known as
202:. After this, his popularity slowly grew. On April 14, 1917, the
620:. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. pp. 467–469.
952:
Yokelson, Joseph B. "Ben Ames Williams: Pastoral Moralist",
945:
Williams, Florence Talpey. 'About Ben Ames Williams",
916:"Mrs. Ben Ames Williams, widow of novelist, is dead"
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168:After graduation, he took a job reporting for the
716:"Ben Ames Williams in Periodicals and Newspapers"
658:"Ben Ames Williams in Periodicals and Newspapers"
633:"Ben Ames Williams and the Saturday Evening Post"
330:Williams also edited and annotated the diary of
757:, FictionMags Index; accessed August 27, 2015.
8:
768:Martin Gardner’s The Monkey and the Coconuts
206:picked up one of Williams' stories, titled
787:
785:
18:
687:The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture
684:Jane Carr (2014). M. Thomas Inge (ed.).
192:in July 1915, and on August 23, 1915 in
886:"Ben A Williams, 63, Novelist, Is Dead"
679:
677:
618:Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817–1967
594:
223:during a period of 24 years. After the
146:Williams was born on March 7, 1889, in
105:Ben Ames, Jr. (Dartmouth, Class of `38)
103:Roger Chilton (Dartmouth, Class of `36)
709:
707:
7:
982:Works by or about Ben Ames Williams
93:Florence Trafton Talpey (1912–1953)
1051:20th-century American male writers
14:
346:Selected list of novels published
182:Williams first publications were
998:
798:Dictionary of Literary Biography
1026:20th-century American novelists
967:The Papers of Ben Ames Williams
823:"Ben Ames Williams (Biography)"
796:. In Bobby Ellen Kimbel (ed.).
1036:People from Macon, Mississippi
631:Richard Cary (December 1973).
1:
779:: Numberplay, October 7, 2013
352:All the Brothers Were Valiant
267:; the latter was made twice,
265:All the Brothers Were Valiant
969:at Dartmouth College Library
997:(public domain audiobooks)
217:the monkey and the coconuts
208:The Mate of the Susie Oakes
1072:
1056:Novelists from Mississippi
991:Works by Ben Ames Williams
973:Works by Ben Ames Williams
1041:People from Jackson, Ohio
212:The Saturday Evening Post
135:The Saturday Evening Post
825:. Movies & TV Dept.
616:Lloyd, James B. (1981).
159:Jackson Standard Journal
59:Brookline, Massachusetts
1031:American male novelists
954:Colby Library Quarterly
947:Colby Library Quarterly
792:Philip Stevick (1991).
583:Armed Services Editions
384:(1922) (Republished as
956:6 (Sep 1963): 278–292.
949:6 (Sep 1963): 302–327.
440:Death on Scurvy Street
198:with his short story,
714:Richard Cary (1972).
656:Richard Cary (1972).
321:Saturday Evening Post
241:George Horace Lorimer
232:Saturday Evening Post
204:Saturday Evening Post
922:. November 10, 1970.
821:Eder, Bruce (2016).
195:The Popular Magazine
1046:Novelists from Ohio
794:"Ben Ames Williams"
579:Leave Her to Heaven
548:It's a Free Country
542:Leave Her to Heaven
332:Mary Boykin Chesnut
278:After His Own Heart
254:Leave Her to Heaven
120:Leave Her to Heaven
920:The New York Times
894:The New York Times
854:A Diary From Dixie
828:The New York Times
777:The New York Times
581:were published as
434:The Dreadful Night
364:The Great Accident
336:A Diary from Dixie
184:The Wings of 'Lias
148:Macon, Mississippi
42:Macon, Mississippi
977:Project Gutenberg
739:Ben Ames Williams
575:The Strange Woman
518:The Strange Woman
500:Thread of Scarlet
464:Pirate's Purchase
422:Immortal Longings
416:The Silver Forest
410:The Rational Hand
260:The Strange Woman
112:Ben Ames Williams
109:
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82:Years active
23:Ben Ames Williams
16:American novelist
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247:Film adaptations
189:Smith's Magazine
152:James Longstreet
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745:(July 15, 1917)
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567:The Unconquered
536:Amateurs At War
488:Small Town Girl
458:An End to Mirth
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296:Small Town Girl
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538:Edited (1943)
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39:March 7, 1889
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898:. Retrieved
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837:. Retrieved
833:the original
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101:Penelope Ann
54:(1953-02-04)
1021:1953 deaths
1016:1889 births
900:January 20,
524:Deep Waters
512:Come Spring
382:Money Musk
315:Later years
305:(1937) and
116:Come Spring
74:Nationality
1010:Categories
839:August 27,
743:The Editor
589:References
452:Great Oaks
446:Touchstone
404:The Whaler
376:Black Pawl
284:Jubilo, Jr
200:Deep Stuff
142:Early life
66:Occupation
35:1889-03-07
560:Owen Glen
470:Honeyflow
342:husband.
239:, though
85:1919–1953
995:LibriVox
494:Crucible
482:Mischief
428:Splendor
398:Audacity
311:(1957).
299:(1936),
293:(1932),
287:(1927),
281:(1919),
257:(1945),
122:(1944)
118:(1940),
98:Children
77:American
984:at the
755:Profile
392:Sangsue
163:Journal
804:
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570:(1953)
562:(1950)
556:(1947)
550:(1945)
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418:(1926)
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406:(1924)
400:(1924)
394:(1923)
378:(1922)
372:(1921)
370:Evered
366:(1920)
360:(1920)
354:(1919)
178:Career
90:Spouse
69:Writer
61:, U.S.
44:, U.S.
890:(PDF)
902:2017
841:2015
802:ISBN
692:ISBN
577:and
271:and
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225:Post
221:Post
49:Died
29:Born
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771:by
186:in
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