''Williwaw'' is the
debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...
of
Gore Vidal
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and ...
, written when he was 19 and first mate of a U.S. Army supply ship stationed in the
Aleutian Islands
The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a cha ...
. The story combines war drama, maritime adventure and a murder plot. The book was first published in 1946 in the United States by
E.P. Dutton
E. P. Dutton was an American book publishing company. It was founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. Since 1986, it has been an imprint of Penguin Group.
Creator
Edward Payson Dutton (January 4, ...
.
Williwaw
In meteorology, a williwaw (archaic spelling williwau) is a sudden blast of wind descending from a mountainous coast to the sea. The word is of unknown origin, but was earliest used by British seamen in the 19th century. The usage appears for wind ...
is the term, widely thought to be
Native American in origin, for a sudden, violent
Katabatic wind
A katabatic wind (named from the Greek word κατάβασις ''katabasis'', meaning "descending") is a drainage wind, a wind that carries high-density air from a higher elevation down a slope under the force of gravity. Such winds are sometim ...
common to the Aleutian Islands.
Plot summary
The story is set on a U.S. ship in the
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
waters around the Aleutians in the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
in the middle of the local storm season during World War II. The nervousness and tension of the crew and a handful of passengers at the approach of the williwaw is stretched to breaking point when the Chief Engineer, Duval, falls overboard in suspicious circumstances.
See also
*
Typhoon (novel)
''Typhoon'' is a short novel by Joseph Conrad, begun in 1899 and serialized in ''Pall Mall Magazine'' in January–March 1902. Its first book publication was in New York by Putnam in 1902; it was also published in Britain in ''Typhoon and Othe ...
References
*http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10790039-williwaw
*http://www.thereadingroom.com/books/details/williwaw-gore-vidal/771670
*http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/wind/The-Williwaw.htm
External links
1946 American novels
Novels by Gore Vidal
American war novels
E. P. Dutton books
Novels set in the Pacific Ocean
Novels set during World War II
1946 debut novels
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