William Wharton (author)

William Wharton
Wharton in 1999
Born	Albert William Du Aime 7 November 1925 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Died	29 October 2008 (aged 82) Encinitas, California, US
Pen name	William Wharton
Nationality	American
Period	1978–2008
Genre	Popular fiction
Notable awards	National Book Award

William Wharton (7 November 1925 – 29 October 2008), the pen name of the author Albert William Du Aime, was an American-born author best known for his first novel Birdy, which was also successful as a film.

Wharton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From "a poor, hard-working, Catholic family", he graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1943, and was inducted into the school's Wall of Fame in 1997. During World War II, Wharton served in the United States Army and was first assigned to an engineering unit. He was transferred to the infantry, and was severely wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. His memoirs included an account of his role in the killing of German prisoners during the war - "War for me, though brief, had been a soul-shaking trauma. I was scared, miserable, and I lost confidence in human beings, especially myself." After his discharge, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received an undergraduate degree in art and a doctorate in psychology, later teaching art in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

His first novel Birdy was published in 1978 when he was more than 50 years old. Birdy was a critical and popular success and it won the U.S. National Book Award in category First Novel.Alan Parker directed a film version starring Nicolas Cage and Matthew Modine. After the publication of Birdy and through the early 1990s, Wharton published eight novels, including Dad and A Midnight Clear, both of which were also made into films, the former starring Jack Lemmon.

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