William Wharton (author)

Infobox Writer
name = William Wharton

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pseudonym = William Wharton
birthname = Albert Du Aime
birthdate = Birth date and age|1925|11|07
birthplace = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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nationality = American
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period = 1978 - present
genre = Popular fiction
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William Wharton (b. 1925 7 November), the pen name of the author Albert Du Aime, is an American-born author best known for his first novel "Birdy", which was also successful as a film.

Wharton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1943. He was inducted into the school's Wall of Fame in 1997. His first novel "Birdy" was published in 1978 when he was more than 50 years old. "Birdy" was a critical and popular success, and Alan Parker directed a film version starring Nicolas Cage and Matthew Modine. After the publication of "Birdy" and through the early 1990s, Du Aime published eight novels, including "Dad" and "A Midnight Clear", both of which were also filmed, the former starring Jack Lemmon.

Many of the protagonists of Wharton's novels, despite having different names and backgrounds, have similar experiences, attitudes, and traits that lead one to presume that they are partly autobiographical Fact|date=August 2008. There is precious little certifiable biography available about Wharton or Du Aime. He served in France and Germany in World War II in the 87th Infantry Division, is (or was) a painter, spent part of his adult life living on a houseboat as an artist in France, raised several children (not all of whom appreciated his philosophy of child-rearing), is a reasonably skilled carpenter and handyman, and has suffered from profound gastrointestinal problemsFact|date=July 2008.

In 1988, Wharton's daughter, Kate; his son-in-law, Bert; and their two children, two-year-old Dayiel and eight-month-old Mia, were killed in a horrific 23-car motor vehicle accident near Albany, Oregon, that was caused by the smoke generated by grass-burning on nearby farmland. In 1994, Wharton wrote a (mostly) non-fiction book, "Ever After", in which he recounts the incidents leading up to the accident, his family's subsequent grief, and the three years he devoted to pursuing redress in the Oregon court system for the field-burning that caused the accident. "Houseboat on Seine", a memoir, was published in 1996, about Wharton's purchase and renovation of a houseboat.

Novels

*1978 • "Birdy"
*1981 • "Dad"
*1982 • "A Midnight Clear"
*1984 • "Scumbler"
*1985 • "Pride"
*1987 • "Tidings"
*1989 • "Franky Furbo"
*1991 • "Last Lovers"
*1994 • "Wrongful Deaths" (memoir)
*1996 • "Houseboat on Seine" (memoir)

The following titles only published in Polish - includes English translation of title
*1998 • "Historie rodzinne" - "Say Uncle"
*1999 • "Al" (sequel to Birdy) - "Al" (subtitle) Worth Trying (?)
*1999 • "William Wharton - Album" (reproductions of paintings)
*1999 • "Opowieści z Moulin du Bruit" - "Tales of the Moulin Du Bruit"
*1999 • "Szrapnel" - "Shrapnel"
*2000 • "Tam, gdzie spotykają się wszystkie światy" - "Beyond the Closet"
*2001 • "Niedobre miejsce" - "A Hard Place"
*2001 • "Nigdy, nigdy mnie nie złapiecie" - "Nyah, Nyah, You Can't Catch Me"
*2002 • "Nie ustawaj w biegu" - "Run, Run, Run"
*2003 • "Rubio" - (roughly 'fair-haired' or blonde - from Spanish)

"Beyond the Closet" was also published in Bulgarian with the title "Отвъд килера" (2007)

Movies based on Wharton's books

* "Birdy" (1984)
* "Dad" (1989)
* "A Midnight Clear" (1992)

External links

* [http://www.udsd.k12.pa.us/alumni/wof.php# Upper Darby High School Wall of Fame]
* [http://www.87thinfantrydivision.com/Resources.html 87th Infantry Division]
* [http://www.linnateater.ee/et/lavastused/birdy.html Birdy staged in Estonia]