Barbara Williams (1925–2013) was an American author of children's books. She is most known for her

coming of age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

story ''Titanic Crossing'', which became a best-seller and won a

Mark Twain Readers Award The Mark Twain Readers Award, or simply Mark Twain Award, is a children's book award which annually recognizes one book selected by vote of Missouri schoolchildren from a list prepared by librarians and volunteer readers. It is now one of four Mi ...

in 1998.

Early life

Barbara Williams was born January 1, 1925, in

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, daughter of Walter Wright. Williams began writing when she was five years old, when she was encouraged by her teachers to act as the classroom reporter for the children's page of a local newspaper, which she kept writing for until she became the editor for that same page at the seventh grade. She sold her first story, to the ''

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'', when she was twelve years old. She graduated from East High School in 1942, and finished her course on the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

in 1946, after which she married J. D. Williams. The couple moved to

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, on the same year, where Williams worked at the

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. Six years later, in 1952, they moved back to Salt Lake City, where her husband founded the Hinckley Institute of Politics. After moving back to her home town, she worked as a teacher in the University of Utah for twelve years.

Career as a writer

While in high school, Barbara met

Emma Lou Thayne Emma Lou Warner Thayne (October 22, 1924 – December 6, 2014) was a poet and novelist. She was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and counted as one of the 75 most significant Mormon poets. Thayne graduated from the Uni ...

, with whom she would become friends. In 1952, the two created a group with six other promising writers from Salt Lake City, which remained active for 16 years. Williams also considered Thayne to be her "spiritual mentor". Williams had her first book published in 1965, ''Let's Go to an Indian Cliff Dwelling''. Although she preferred writing fiction, most of her initial works are nonfiction. By 1983, she had already written almost thirty different works, with twelve of those being children's picture books. Her most successful work was ''Titanic Crossing'', which sold over a million copies and, at the time, appeared as No. 3 on ''

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'' Fiction Bestsellers List.

Personal life and death

Williams had four children with her husband, J. D. Williams, who died in 2007. Barbara died in Salt Lake City, in 2013.

Selected works

Williams wrote a total of 52 books during her lifetime, which included nonfiction, picture books and young adult novels. * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Barbara 2013 deaths University of Utah faculty 1925 births University of Utah alumni American women children's writers American children's writers American women novelists People from Salt Lake City American women academics 21st-century American women