William Campbell Gault was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 writer. He wrote under his own name, and as Roney Scott and Will Duke, among other pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

s.

He is probably best remembered for his sports fiction, particularly the young-readers' novels he began publishing in the early 1960s, and for his crime fiction

Crime fiction

Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...

.

He was a wide-ranging contributor to the pulp magazine

Pulp magazine

Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...

s, particularly to the sports pulps, where he was considered one of the best writers in the field. Damon Knight

Damon Knight

Damon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, critic and fan. His forte was short stories and he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.-Biography:...

, noted science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 critic and one-time editor of Popular Publications, wrote the following about Gault's sports fiction:

I liked the characterization in those stories; I liked the description; I liked the fist fights; I liked the love interest. I like everything about them, except what they were all about.

He won the Edgar Award

Edgar Award

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...

 for his first crime fiction

Crime fiction

Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...

novel, Don't Cry for Me (1952).

Sports fiction

• Backfield Challenge
• Bruce Benedict, Halfback
• The Checkered Flag
• Dim Thunder
• Dirt Track Summer
• Drag Strip
• Gallant Colt
• Gasoline Cowboy
• The Karters
• The Long Green
• Mr. Fullback
• Mr. Quarterback
• Road-Race Rookie
• Rough Road To Glory
• Speedway Challenge
• Sunday's Dust
• Through The Line
• Thunder Road
• Two-Wheeled Thunder
• Wheels of Fortune

Crime fiction

The protagonist is Brock Callahan, L.A. football star who quit because of a bad knee and set up shop in Beverly Hills as a private investigator; several re-issued in paperback by Charter Books, circa 1988.

• The Bad Samaritan (1980)
• The Cana Diversion (1980)
• Cat and Mouse (1988)
• The Chicano War (1986)
• Come Die With Me (1961)
• The Convertible Hearse (1957)
• County Kill (1961)
• Day of The Ram (1958)
• Dead Hero (1964)
• The Dead Seed (1984)
• Deaf Pigeon (1996)
• Death In Donegal Bay (1984)
• Murder In The Raw (1955) original title “Ring Around Rosa”
• Vein of Violence (1962)

External links