Authors

Barbara Weisberg is the author of Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism, a nonfiction account of the lives of the two charismatic young progenitors of modern Spiritualism in the 19th century. A published poet and also the author of several children’s books, Weisberg first wrote about the Fox sisters for American Heritage magazine. She has received the American Antiquarian Society’s Wallace Fellowship and the Parapsychology Foundation’s D. Scott Rogo Award for her work.

Bernard A. Weisberger, distinguished former history professor of Wayne State University and the Universities of Chicago and Rochester, was the associate editor of American Heritage from 1970 to 1972. He authored When Chicago Ruled Baseball: The Cubs-White Sox World Series of 1906 (William Morrow, 2006), and has also written Reporters for the Union, a study of Civil War newspapermen.

Arnold Welles is a great-great-grandson of Samuel Slater. Graduated from Yale with honors in American history, he is now in the investment business and divides his time between Savannah, Georgia, and Northeast Harbor, Maine.

Peter Welsh is a curator at the Smithsonian Institution. He has just completed a book on the trotter in America.

Michael F. Wendland is a free-lance writer and an investigative reporter for the television station WDIV in Detroit.

James W. Wensyel retired with the rank of colonel after a career in the U.S. Army.

Caroline E. Werkley is a research librarian in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. A longer version of her article appeared earlier in The Journal of Library History .

M. R. Werner—journalist; biographer of Bryan, Barnum, and Brigham Young; author of a history of Tammany Hall—has contributed frequently to the New Yorker (among other magazines) and is a close student of his city’s past. During the last six months of La Guardia’s life, Mr. Werner worked with him on research for a projected autobiography.

Robert Wernick, formerly on the staff of Life, now lives in California. He is the author of many magazine articles and two novels. The epitaph on page in is from Over Their Dead Bodies: Yankee Epitaphs & History , by Thomas C. Mann and Janet Greene, published by the Stephen Greene Press.

Elliot West is a historian and the Alumni Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Arkansas since 1979. He is a specialist in the social and environmental history of the American West and in American Indian history and is the author of eight books, four of which have received national awards. His most recent book, Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion, won the 2024 Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for History.

Alan F. Westin is an associate professor of public law and government at Columbia University. He is at present working on a biography of Justice John Marshall Harlan—who, incidentally., was the grandfather of a present Supreme Court Justice who bears the same name. For further reading: The Constitutional Doctrines of Justice Harlan , by Floyd Barzillia Clark (Johns Hopkins, 1915); The Supreme Court in United States History , Vol. II: 1836-1918, by Charles Warren (Little, Brown, 1960); The Strange Career of Jim Crow , by C. Vann Woodward (Oxford University Press, 1958).

—Donald E. Westlake is the author of the Dortmunder series of crime novels. His most recent book is The Ax .

W. D. Wetherell is a noted author best known for his novels, short stories, and nonfiction books on fly fishing and New England. His short stories have been published in the New England Review, the Kenyon Review, and other collections, and he has frequently contributed to The New York Times. 

Richard S. Wheeler is the author of the novel An Obituary for Major Reno , and of Eclipse: A Novel of Lewis and Clark .

In 1972, Richard Wheeler became a book editor for a number of publishers, most notably Walker & Company. Inspired by both the westerns he was editing, Richard Wheeler penned his first novel, Bushwhack, for Doubleday Publishing in 1978. In 1989, he won his first Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America with Fool's Coach. He is five-time recipient of the award.

Addison Beecher Colvin Whipple is a historian and author who has written largely about oceanic subjects since the mid-1950s. He was an executive editor at Time-Life Books and before that an associate editor at Life Magazine. Whipple has authored 21 books including Yankee Whalers in the South Seas(1954), The Clipper Ships (1980), To the Shores of Tripoli: The Birth of the U.S. Navy and Marines (1991), and Storm (1982).

Ian Whitcomb is an English entertainer, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has written several books on popular music, beginning with After the Ball, published by Penguin Books (Britain) and Simon & Schuster (United States) in 1972. He accompanies his singing by playing the ukulele and, through his records, concerts, and film work, has helped to stimulate the current revival of interest in the instrument. Whitcomb's re-creation of the music played aboard the RMS Titanic in the film of that name won a Grammy Award in 1998 for package design and a nomination for Whitcomb's liner notes (Titanic: Music as Heard on the Fateful Voyage).

Bill White is currently chairman of Houston Banking and senior advisor for Lazard, a firm advising corporate executives, boards, and governments throughout the world. Mr. White served as mayor of Houston from 2003 to 2009 and deputy secretary of energy during the Clinton administration. As mayor of Houston, White received the prestigious John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award for his leadership of relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina and Governing magazine's Governing Official of the Year award in 2007. He has been a successful CEO, has served on the boards of numerous corporations, and has practiced and taught law. White ran for governor in 2010 against Rick Perry, receiving more votes than any Democratic candidate in the history of Texas.

Roger B. White is with the Division of Transportation of the National Museum of American History, in Washington, which recently opened an exhibition entitled “At Home on the Road: Autocamping, Motels, and the Rediscovery of America.”

After the Civil War broke out in 1861, Edward White enlisted in the Confederate army. Little is known of his activities other than that he served as a captain on the staff of Brigadier General Thomas L. Clingman, a participant in, among others, the Wilderness campaign. After the war White studied law in Winchester, Virginia, and was admitted to the bar in 1866. At about the same time he married Gertrude Douglas of Charles Town, West Virginia; the couple had six children. In i8jo White was appointed a judge in Clarke County, Virginia; but two years later he moved to St. Louis, where he resumed his law practice. He was a police-court justice there from 1885 to 1888. On March 31, 1888, he died of tuberculosis.

John I. White (1902-1992) was a writer, singer of cowboy songs, radio personality, and map draftsman. His singing career culminated when he played his guitar and sang as "The Lonesome Cowboy" on the NBC radio drama "Death Valley Days" sponsored by Twenty-Mule-Team Borax from 1929-1936. He maintained a lifelong interest in cowboy songs and the American West, researching and writing articles and two books on this and other topics.

—John H. White, Jr., is a professor of history at Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, and is former curator of transportation at the National Museum of American History.

Ronald C. White, Jr., is the author of The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words and Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural .

Mr. Whitehill is the director and librarian of the noted Boston Athenaeum. This article originally appeared in The Times Literary Supplement of London.

Flint Whitlock is a military historian and the Editor of WWII Quarterly magazine. After 30 years in the advertising world, Flint Whitlock decided to switch careers and follow his passion: history, particularly military history. A graduate of the University of Illinois and a former U.S. Army officer (1965-70) with tours in West Germany and Vietnam, he has authored or co-authored 13 books and dozens of magazine articles since 1992, and has won numerous awards. He has led D-Day battlefield tours to England and France for National Geographic and the Smithsonian, appeared in several documentaries on The History Channel, Fox News, and "War Stories with Oliver North," and has been the editor of WWII Quarterly magazine (Sovereign Media) since 2010.

Ralph Whitney, ex-naval officer, former magazine art editor, and steady contributor to ship periodicals, is now at work on a biography of E. K. Collins, to be published this fall.

Arnold Whitridge was master of Calhoun College and professor of history at Yale until 1942. His latest book, Simon Bolivar, the Great Liberator , appeared last year.

Richard Whittle is the author of Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution and of The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey. A former Global Fellow in International Security Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington and Verville Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, Whittle has written for Air & Space Smithsonian, the U.S. Naval Institute journal Proceedings, the web site BreakingDefense.com, the Vertical Flight Society journal Vertiflite, and numerous other publications.

—Tom Wicker is the author most recently of Easter Lilly: A Novel of the South Today .

Steve Wiegand is an award-winning journalist and history writer. His 35-year journalism career was spent at the San Diego Evening Tribune, where he was chief political writer; San Francisco Chronicle, where he was state capitol bureau chief, and Sacramento Bee, where he was a special projects writer and politics columnist. Wiegand is the author or co-author of 10 books, including The Dancer, the Dreamers and the Queen of Romania; U.S. History for Dummies, which is currently in its fourth edition and has been published in both Chinese and German; The Mental Floss History of the World; Papers of Permanence; Lessons from the Great Depression for Dummies, and The American Revolution for Dummies.

Henry Wiencek is writing a book about the legacy of slavery.

Frederick Bernays Wiener was the author of “Our Fumbling Foes of ’76” in the April issue of AMERICAN HERITAGE this year. A lawyer for over forty years and a retired colonel, he was recently awarded the Army’s Outstanding Civilian Service Medal in recognition of “a lifetime of outstanding public service to the United States Army and the legal profession.”

Alan Wiener, an attorney who has been studying the DD Tanks for more than ten years, recently completed a book-length manuscript on the subject.

New York 4th March 1865 [Signed] STILLMAN K. WIGHTMAN

—Max WiIk wrote for the screen and television in its golden age and is the author of many books, most recently a history of Hollywood writers, Schmucks With Underwoods .

Curtis Wilkie is a journalist, college professor and historian of the American South. He was the longtime Southern bureau chief for the Boston Globe, and was the first Senior Fellow of the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at the University of Mississippi. Historian Douglas Brinkley has written that, “Over the past four decades no reporter has critiqued the American South with such evocative sensitivity and bedrock honesty as Curtis Wilkie.” Wilkie is the author of Dixie: A Personal Odyssey Through Events That Shaped the Modern South, Assassins, Eccentrics, Politicians, and Other Persons of Interest: Fifty Pieces from the Road, and The Fall of the House of Zeus: The Rise and Ruin of America's Most Powerful Trial Lawyer.

Considered one of the most influential journalists since World War II, George F. Will is a syndicated columnist, a television news analyst, and the author of several books, most recently One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation (2008). Aside from his writings on politics and public policy, Will has also published several books on baseball. This essay has been adapted from the foreword to Reassessing the Sixties: Debating the Political and Cultural Legacy, a collection of essays to be published by W. W. Norton & Company.

Juan Williams is political analyst for Fox News Channel and the author of Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965 (1987), a companion to the documentary series of the same name about the Civil Rights Movement; Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary (2000), a biography of Thurgood Marshall, the first black American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States; and

R. Hal Williams (1941-2016) earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton University Phi Beta Kappa in 1963 and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University in 1964 and 1968, respectively.  He was named one of Yale’s 10 Best Teachers in 1973 and 1974 before assuming a position at Southern Methodist university in 1975.  There, he was professor of history, chaired the history department, and served as dean of Dedman College before becoming dean of research and graduate studies. A recipient of many awards from SMU, including the "M" Award, the university's highest honor for service to the university, he retired in 2011.

An authority on the Civil War, T. Harry Williams is professor of history at Louisiana State University. His most recent book was the best-selling Lincoln and His Generals .

The author of several books and many articles, Mr. Williams is currently writing a book on Golden Gate Bridge suicides.

Frank J. Williams Chief Justice Supreme Court of Rhode Island

Garry Wills has authored many books that study George Washington, Richard Nixon, the Kennedy family, Ronald Reagan, and religion in America. He has won many literary awards including, the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Non-fiction for his book Lincoln at Gettysburg He currently serves as Professor Emeritus of History at Northwestern University.

Robert Wilson has been an award-winning editor at Preservation, Civilization, and The American Scholar, which he has edited since 2004. He writes often for magazines and newspapers and was on staff at USA Today and The Washington Post. Wilson is the author of biographies of Mathew Brady, Clarence King, and P.T. Barnum. He lives in Manassas, Virginia.

Ellen Wilson teaches a course in children’s literature at Indiana University. She is the author of several books for children, the two most recent being Ernie Pyle: Boy From Back Home and, in collaboration with Nan AgIe, Three Boys and a Train .