Rhode Island Authors: U - Z

By Sue Huettman

Below is an alphabetical listing of Rhode Island authors; notations about their personal connection to the state as well as the genre in which they write; titles of the author's work (where applicable); and information on how students may obtain further information about an author. To best use this document, students should select an author and copy down the source number(s). Then go to this Rhode Island Literary Sources document to look up the source code.

RI Code (RI)	Author Genre Code (AG)
B = born in RI (town specified) D = died in RI F = faculty or teacher L = lived or worked in RI N = Newport P = Providence S = summer resident in RI c. = about/consensus na = not available	b = biographer br = broadcast e = editor f = fiction h = humorist j = juvenile na = not available nf = non fiction p = poet/lyricist pw = playwright sw = screenwriter v = visual arts

SN = source number

— U —

No authors available.

— V —

Van Allsburg, Chris (1949- )
RI:LP / AG:jf / SN: 2,7,9,11,12,8
Author and illustrator of children's books. Jumanji (1981/1982 American Library Association's Caldecott Gold Medal for illustration); The Mysteries of Harris Burdock (1984); The Polar Express (1985;Caldecott Award 1986); The Garden of Abdul Gasazi 3(1979); Bad Day at Riverbend; Ben's Dream; Sweetest Fig; Widow's Broom; Wretched Stone; Two Bad Ants. Illustration awards: American Book Award and Caldecott Awards.

Van Dyke, Henry (1852-1933)
RI:LN / AG:f,nf,p / SN:4
A minister; wrote poems, essays, and short stories

Van Zandt

RI:LN / AG:p / SN:4
Newport poet and governor of Rhode Island

Verrazzano, Giovanni da (1485-1582)
RI:Explorer / AG:nf / SN: 7,26
Hakluyt's Divers Voyages Touching the Discovery of America (London, 1582); first description of Narragansett Bay

Vogel, Paula (1951- )
RI:LP / AG:pw / SN: 7,8,14,40
How I Learned to Drive (Pulitzer Prize 1998); The Mineola Twins (1995); Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief (1994); The Baltimore Waltz (1992); The Mammary Plays

 — W —

Waldrop, Keith (1932- )
RI:LP / AG:e,p / SN:7,8
Co-editor of the Burning Deck Books with Rosemarie Waldrop; The Opposite of Letting the Mind Wander: Selected Poems and a Few Songs (1990); Light While There is Light (1993); The Silhouette of the Bridge (1997)

Waldrop, Rosemarie (1935- )
RI:LP / AG:e,p / SN:7,8,14
Co-editor of the Burning Deck Books with Keith Waldrop; The Reproduction of Profiles (1987); Law? of Excluded Middle (1992); A Key into the Language of America, Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians (1994)

Walton, Richard John(1928- )
RI:L-Warwick / AG:nf,br / SN:2,7
Cold War and Counterrevolution: the Foreign Policy of John F. Kennedy (1971/72). Broadcaster and UN correspondent.

Warren, Austin (1899-1986)
RI:LP / AG:nf / SN:7
The Elder Henry James (1934); A Rage for Order: essays in criticism (1959); In Continuity: the Last Essays of Austin Warren (posthumous 1996)

Washburn, Delphine
RI:L-Newport / AG:f / SN: 3,4
Newport Woman (1967)

Watkins, Paul (1964- )
RI:L-Wickford / AG:f / SN: 4,7,8
Night over Day over Night (1988); Archangel (1995); Calm at Sunset, Calm at Dawn (1996); The Story of My Disappearance

Watson, Craig (1950)
RI:L-Jamestown / AG:p / SN:7
After Calculus (1988); Picture of the Picture of the Image in the Glass (1992); Reason (1998)

Watson, Joseph
RI:na / AG:j;nf / SN:4
Father Gander's Chimes; Shakespearean essayist; columnist

West, Edward H.
RI:na / AG:nf / SN:4
History of Portsmouth 1638-1938 (Rhode Island history)

Wharton, Edith (1862-1937)
RI:LN / AG:f,nf / SN: 4,7,8,36,46,47,48,49,51,52
This Was My Newport (1944); The Decoration of Houses (co-authored with architect Ogden Codman, 1897); Ethan Frome (1911); House of Mirth: Age of Innocence (Pulitzer Prize, 1920/21)

Wheaton, Henry
RI:na / AG:nf / SN:4
International law author

White, Deborah
RI:L / AG:nf / SN:9,11
A Certain Kind of Love (children with handicaps)

White, Edmund (1940- )
RI:LP / AG:f,b / SN:7
A Boy's Own Story (1982); The Beautiful Room is Empty (1988); Genet: A Biography (1993)

Whitman, Cedric H.
RI:na / AG:nf,p / SN:4
Homer and the Homeric Traditions (1958 Christian Gauss Prize); Orpheus and the Moon Crater (poetry)

Whitman, Ruth (1922- )
RI:L-Middletown / AG:p / SN:7
The Passion of Lizzie Borden (1973); Permanent Address: New Poems 1972-1980 (1980); Laughing Gas: Poems New and Selected 1963-1990 (1990)

Whitman, Sarah Helen (1803-1878)
RI:BP / AG:p / SN:4,7
Engagement to Edgar Allan Poe (1845) blocked by her family. Poe wrote "To Helen" and "Annabelle Lee" for her. Edgar Poe and His Critics (1860); Poems 1803-78 published after her death

Wiitala, Geri Colozzi
RI:L / AG:nf / SN:9,17
Heather's Return; Muffin

Wilder, Thornton (1897-1975)
RI:LN-1926 / AG:f,pw / SN:3,7,8,47,49,52
Theophilus North (1973;movie version, Mr. North, location shoot in Newport); Our Town (Pulitzer Prize 1938); The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927; Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

Williams, Catherine R. (c.1790-1872)
RI:BP / AG:p / SN:7
Original Poems (1828); Annals of the Aristocracy (1845)

Williams, Roger (c.1603-1683)
RI: Providence Founder / AG:nf / SN:4,7,28,49,50
Founded Providence Plantations, 1636, and Colony of Rhode Island. First RI author: A Study of the Narragansett Indian Language and Customs, A Key into the Language of America (1643); The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution (1644)

Williams, Penelope
RI:na / AG:f / SN:3
The Passions of Emma, an 1890 Romantic novel set in Bristol (1997)

Williams, Victoria
RI:N,F / AG:f,nf / SN:5
Mythology, folklore, and inter arts

Wilson, Arthur Edward (1902- )
RI:L / AG:nf / SN:2
Weybosset Bridge in Providence Plantations, 1700-1790 (1947); Paddy Wilson's Meeting House in Providence Plantations, 1791-1839 (1950). A minister (1965 YMCA Outstanding Community Leadership award and 1967 Bronze Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews) who also wrote Christmas stories.

Wilson, William E.
RI:na / AG:na / SN:4
Big Knife; Wabash

Wister, Owen (1860-1938)
RI:L-Saunderstown / AG:f,b / SN:4,7
The Virginian (1902,1965); Red Men and White (Frederick Remington illustrator, 1896,1969); Theodore Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship 1880-1919 (1930)

Wolff, Geoffrey (1937- )
RI:L-Jamestown / AG:f,nf,b / SN:2,3,4,7,8
Black Sun: The Brief Transit and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby (1976); Providence (1986); The Duke of Deception (1979); a Guggenheim Fellow and periodical essayist

Wolpaw, Jim
RI:L / AG:sw / SN:13
Emmerson professor and screenwriter

Wood, Gordon S. (1933- )
RI:LP / AG:nf / SN:7
The Creation of the American Republic (1969,1972); The Great Republic: A History of the American People (1977); The Radicalism of the American Revolution (Pulitzer winner, 1992)

Woodward, Jeremy (1970- )
RI:LP / AG:nf / SN:7
Co-authored with Vanessa Gilbert: The Lunchcart Circus (1996); The Phrenologist's Dream (1998)

Woolsey, Sarah Chauncy (1835-1905)
RI: N / AG:na / SN:4

Wright, C.D. (1949- )
RI:F, L-Barrington / AG:p,nf,e / SN:7,8,35,56,63
Poet Laureate of Rhode Island (1994-99) and recipient of the Lannan Foundation Literary Award (1999). Eight collections of poetry, including: Translations of the Gospel Back into Tongues (1982); Tremble (1996); Deepstep Come Shining (1998); and The Readers Map (1999 listing of Rhode Island authors).

Wright, E. Deborah
RI:na / AG:nf / SN:9
A Certain Kind of Love (co-author Jean Joy Crowley, 1999)

Wroth, Lawrence C. (1884-1970)
RI:LP / AG:nf / SN:4,7
The Walpole Society: Five Decades (1948); A History of the Making and Selling of Books in the United States (co-author Hellmut Lehmann, 1951); The Voyages of Giovanni da Verrazanno 1524-1528 (1970)

— Y —

Youngblood, Shay (1959- )
RI:LP / AG:f / SN:7
Big Mama Stories (1989); Talking Bones (1994); Soul Kiss (1997)

— Z —

Zurier, Rebecca (1958- )
RI:B / AG:nf / SN: 1,2
The American Firehouse (1982)