William R. Trotter
Encyclopedia
William R. Trotter is an American
author
and historian
.
book, which was published in 1989. A research project Trotter started while at Davidson College
about the Winter War
eventually became the history A Frozen Hell, published in 1991. It was awarded the Finlandia Foundation Arts and Letters Prize. A trilogy of books on the American Civil War
in North Carolina
was published in the 1991 and 1992. Winter Fire, his first novel, was published in 1993. A horror novelette
, "Siren of Swanquarter", published in Deathrealm
magazine, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award
in 1994. His biography of conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos
was published in 1995. He wrote two guides for the Close Combat
series of computer games in 1999. A pair of historical novel
s set in North Carolina during the Civil War, Sands of Pride and Fires of Pride, were published in 2002 and 2003, and his most recent novel, Warrener's Beastie, was published in 2006. He has also written "The Desktop General" column for PC Gamer
magazine since 1988. Trotter also has spent time in Filmography as an Assistant Director for Ghost Recon 2 in 2004 and as the musical consultant for one episode of Live from Lincoln Center
in 1976
Trotter is also a classical music expert and collector, housing one of the largest collections of vinyl and CD recordings in the Southeast. He has written on classical music for the Charlotte Observer, the High Point Enterprise, and the Greensboro News & Record
, among others, and has served as program annotator for Greensboro's prestigious Eastern Music Festival. He is an acknowledged expert on the works of Jean Sibelius
, the subject of his "Winter Fire" novel, and Leopold Stokowski
, whose Trotter-penned biography has gone as yet unpublished but has made the rounds of the Leopold Stokowski Society for many years.
. At the age of fourteen he wrote his first novel, Glorious October (unpublished) about the Hungarian revolution of 1956.
He married his second wife, pianist Elizabeth Lustig, in 1983. They have one son together and one son each from previous marriages. Trotter and Lustig published The Northstate Reader monthly tabloid from 1981 to 1984. They live in Greensboro, North Carolina
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
.
Writings
Trotter's work has covered a variety of genres and markets. His first published work was "Sibelius and the Tides of Taste" for High Fidelity in 1965. Lawyer Rob Newsom III invited him to write Deadly Kin, a true crimeTrue crime (genre)
True crime is a non-fiction literary and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people.The crimes most commonly include murder, but true crime works have also touched on other legal cases. Depending on the writer, true crime can adhere strictly to...
book, which was published in 1989. A research project Trotter started while at Davidson College
Davidson College
Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. The college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine, although it has recently dropped to 11th in U.S. News...
about the Winter War
Winter War
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
eventually became the history A Frozen Hell, published in 1991. It was awarded the Finlandia Foundation Arts and Letters Prize. A trilogy of books on the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
was published in the 1991 and 1992. Winter Fire, his first novel, was published in 1993. A horror novelette
Novelette
A novelette is a piece of short prose fiction. The distinction between a novelette and other literary forms is usually based upon word count, with a novelette being longer than a short story, but shorter than a novella...
, "Siren of Swanquarter", published in Deathrealm
Deathrealm
Deathrealm was a small-press magazine of horror fiction that ran from 1987 through 1997, edited by Stephen Mark Rainey. In its ten-year history, Deathrealm featured hundreds of stories by writers ranging from talented first-timers to the best-known professionals in the horror field...
magazine, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award
Bram Stoker Award
The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented by the Horror Writers Association for "superior achievement" in horror writing. The awards have been presented annually since 1987, and the winners are selected by ballot of the Active members of the HWA...
in 1994. His biography of conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos
Dimitris Mitropoulos
Dimitri Mitropoulos , was a Greek conductor, pianist, and composer. Also known as Dimitris Mitropoulos.-Life and career:Mitropoulos was born in Athens, the son of Yannis and Angeliki Mitropoulos. His father owned a leather goods shop at No. 15, St Marks Street. He was musically precocious,...
was published in 1995. He wrote two guides for the Close Combat
Close Combat
Close Combat is the name of a series of real-time tactical computer games by Atomic Games. In the Close Combat RTT games, the player takes control of a small unit of troops and leads them in battles of World War II from a top down 2D perspective.-History:Close Combat was developed as a computer...
series of computer games in 1999. A pair of historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
s set in North Carolina during the Civil War, Sands of Pride and Fires of Pride, were published in 2002 and 2003, and his most recent novel, Warrener's Beastie, was published in 2006. He has also written "The Desktop General" column for PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
magazine since 1988. Trotter also has spent time in Filmography as an Assistant Director for Ghost Recon 2 in 2004 and as the musical consultant for one episode of Live from Lincoln Center
Live from Lincoln Center
Live From Lincoln Center is an ongoing series of musical performances produced by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in conjunction with Thirteen/WNET in New York City....
in 1976
Trotter is also a classical music expert and collector, housing one of the largest collections of vinyl and CD recordings in the Southeast. He has written on classical music for the Charlotte Observer, the High Point Enterprise, and the Greensboro News & Record
Greensboro News & Record
The News & Record is the largest newspaper serving Guilford County and the surrounding region. It is based in Greensboro, NC, and produces local sections for Greensboro and Rockingham County, NC. As of April, 2011, it had an average weekday circulation of 60,993 and an average Sunday circulation...
, among others, and has served as program annotator for Greensboro's prestigious Eastern Music Festival. He is an acknowledged expert on the works of Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...
, the subject of his "Winter Fire" novel, and Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
, whose Trotter-penned biography has gone as yet unpublished but has made the rounds of the Leopold Stokowski Society for many years.
Biography
Trotter was born in Charlotte, North CarolinaCharlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
. At the age of fourteen he wrote his first novel, Glorious October (unpublished) about the Hungarian revolution of 1956.
He married his second wife, pianist Elizabeth Lustig, in 1983. They have one son together and one son each from previous marriages. Trotter and Lustig published The Northstate Reader monthly tabloid from 1981 to 1984. They live in Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
.
Novels
- Winter Fire (19931993 in literatureThe year 1993 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Professor Stephen Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time, becomes the longest running book on the bestseller list of The Sunday Times....
) ISBN 978-0-525-93581-0 - Sands of Pride (20022002 in literatureThe year 2002 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 16: Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested and jailed poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and fired a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem The Corrupt on Earth that criticized the state's Islamic...
) ISBN 978-0-7867-1013-3 - Fires of Pride (20032003 in literatureThe year 2003 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Peter Ackroyd - The Clerkenwell Tales*Atsuko Asano - No...
) ISBN 978-0-7867-1448-3 - Warrener's Beastie (20062006 in literatureThe year 2006 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Literature:*Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun*Chris Adrian - The Children's Hospital *Martin Amis - House of Meetings...
) ISBN 978-0-7867-1328-8
Non-fiction
- Word Processing by Anderson and Trotter (19741974 in literatureThe year 1974 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics is founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman.-New books:*Richard Adams - Shardik*Kingsley Amis - Ending Up...
) ISBN 978-0-8144-5356-8 - Deadly Kin: A True Story of a Mass Family Murder (19881988 in literatureThe year 1988 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Margaret Atwood - Cat's Eye*J.G. Ballard - Memories of the Space Age*Iain M...
) ISBN 978-0-929307-00-8 - Silk Flags and Cold Steel (1988) ISBN 978-0-929307-01-5
- Bushwhackers!: The Mountains (19911991 in literatureThe year 1991 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Douglas Coupland publishes the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term Generation X as the name of the generation....
) ISBN 978-0-89587-087-2 - Ironclads and Columbiads: The Coast (1991) ISBN 978-0-89587-088-9
- Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939/40 (1991) ISBN 978-0-945575-22-1
- Ascendancy: The Official Strategy Guide (19951995 in literatureThe year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter....
) ISBN 978-0-7615-0358-3 - Priest of Music: The Life of Dimitri Mitropoulos (1995) ISBN 978-0-931340-81-9
- Close Combat: Inside Moves (19961996 in literatureThe year 1996 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is removed from an advanced placement English reading list in Lindale, Texas because it "conflicted with the values of the community."* In the United Kingdom, the first...
) ISBN 978-1-57231-308-8 - Close Combat - A Bridge Too Far: Inside Moves (19981998 in literatureThe year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première....
) ISBN 978-1-57231-634-8
Novelettes and short stories
- "The Running Back from Yuggoth" - Fantasy Book June 1985
- "Bagman" - Night Cry Fall 1985
- "A Pinch of Snuff" - DeathrealmDeathrealmDeathrealm was a small-press magazine of horror fiction that ran from 1987 through 1997, edited by Stephen Mark Rainey. In its ten-year history, Deathrealm featured hundreds of stories by writers ranging from talented first-timers to the best-known professionals in the horror field...
Fall/Win 1990 - "The Boss of the Seventh Level" - Deathrealm Spr 1992
- "A Graveside chat with Diedra Cox" - Deathrealm Win 1993
- "The Siren of Swanquater" - Deathrealm Win 1993
- "Big Game" - Deathrealm Fall 1996
- "The Bleeding of Hauptmann Gehlen" - The Darkest Thirst, Anon, Design Image Group 1998