William T. Vollmann

Theophilus Savvas (University of Bristol)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 28 Jul 1959
Activity 1987-ongoing

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Story-writer
Travel writer

Other

Anthropologist

Resources

Vollmann's Works

Save to Bookshelf

William T. Vollmann is one of the most prolific contemporary writers in the United States, and had published twenty books before his fiftieth birthday (although not all remain in print). He has met with considerable critical success – being listed in the

New Yorker

’s 1999 feature on the top twenty writers under 40 and winning the National Book Award in 2005, for his novel

Europe Central

– but the formidable size and difficult subject matter of many of his books means that he has been denied the readership which many believe his work deserves. Much of this work melds reportage and fiction, and he has written for a number of periodicals, including

Esquire

Harper’s

, and

Playboy

. His first novel,

You Bright and Risen Angels: A Cartoon

(1987), is a multi-charactered tale of…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

3233 words

Citation: Savvas, Theophilus. "William T. Vollmann". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 November 2010; last revised 21 June 2021. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12871, accessed 22 November 2024.]

View recommended reading for this article