Ben Ames Williams Books In Order

Publication Order of House Divided Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Ben Ames Williams was an American published author.

He was born in Macon, Mississippi on March 7, 1889 to his parents Daniel Webster Williams and Sarah Marshall Ames. Not long after Ben was born, his family decided to move to Jackson, Ohio.

His father owned and edited the Jackson Standard Journal in Ohio, so from a young age Ben was exposed to the world of writing, editing, and print. He worked for the Journal in high school, doing basic menial tasks at the start but eventually moving on to writing and editing.

Once Ben graduated high school, he enrolled at Dartmouth College. He graduated in 1910 and then was offered the chance to take on a position teaching English in Connecticut at a boy’s school. He sent a telegraph to his father with the intent of looking for some advice on his career. However, Ben’s handwriting was very poor so his father read ‘teaching’ as ‘traveling’. He didn’t want Ben to become a traveling businessman or salesman so he advised him not to take the position.

Thankfully, this error ended up working in Ben’s favor. It would end up pushing him toward a career becoming one of the most popular and well-received storytellers of his time. After he graduated, he accepted a job as a reporter for the Boston American. Even though he did his best to report for the local paper, the truth of the matter is that Ben was mainly doing it for the income. His true passion was magazine fiction.

Every night he worked on writing fiction with the hopes that one day the stories that he writes would be enough to be able to support himself as well as his wife Florence and their three children– Roger, Ben, Penelope. At the start of his career he was dealing with many rejection letters, but he took this as motivation and it only made him more determined to study hard and practice more.

Williams first had his writing published on August 23, 1915. His short story “Deep Stuff” was released in The Popular Magazine. His popularity only grew after that. Williams released 135 short stories, 7 articles, and 35 serials for the Saturday Evening Post over the course of 24 years. The Post took him on and it ended up setting the standard– once that happened, other magazines were all of a sudden searching Williams out so that his fiction could be submitted to their magazines too.

The author is also very well known for coming up with Fraternity, a fictional town that is located in rural Maine. On top of this, 125 of the short stories that he wrote were set in this little made up town. His stories featuring Fraternity made up some of the most popular that the Post released. In addition to being the setting for many of his short stories, Maine is also the place that he set many of his novels.

Williams had a terrific writing career and one that lasts to this day. While he unfortunately passed away due to a heart attack in 1953, the many short stories and novels that he penned will continue to make up and pass on his literary legacy.

Leave Her to Heaven is a 1944 novel written by Ben Ames Williams. This is a novel that was a bestseller at the time that revolves around a man who meets a woman who has the power to destroy in her just as much as she has the power to love. If you love to read classic works but have a tough time finding new old works to enjoy, check out this book that reminds one of Hemingway as it has a naturalistic portrayal of the elemental forces in nature and humanity.

When Harland met Ellen, he was at first struck by her beauty. She is radiant with her appearance and Harland was impressed by her beauty but soon finds that he is impressed by her personality and the strength of her character. Once he runs into her, Harland instinctively knows that he could never leave her side.

He is even more surprised when he discovers that his affection is not one-sided. She returns his adoration and once she does he feels so overcome with joy that he could marry her right that moment. The only thing that is getting in the way is that he has a strange premonition.

Harland thinks nothing of it, but the truth is that the premonition will come into play later. He has no idea that this premonition has become a terrifying reality. Ellen seemed so lovely when they first met, and it seemed that her beauty came out of her like a glow.

It is only later that Harland starts to realize that the woman he has married is actually evil to the core. Will he be able to undo this mistake or will he end up finding that it is too late and he will have to live with her in devotion forever? Could it be that he is mistaken and Ellen is not as two-faced as he has come to believe he is? Read this book from Ben Ames Williams to find out.

House Divided is a novel by Ben Ames Williams that was first released in 1947. This was a bestselling historical novel at the time and one that is remembered as being one of the best re-tellings of the saga that was the Civil War, almost like a version of War and Peace but for America.

In the beginning of the Civil War when things were really tough, five siblings of a family in Confederate Virginia end up finding out that their father is Abraham Lincoln’s grandfather. The story of their family and their descendants is featured in this story that includes soldiers and civilians, full of their arrogance, ambition and boasting but also at the same time their valor, patience, and sense of being shrewd.

Ben Ames Williams is the grand-nephew of General James Longstreet so he has this time period and its legacy in his blood. Through this book he has brought to life a unique period in history, showing war for the hideous disease that it is. Check out House Divided to see what you think!