.jpg) Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Gore Vidal |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.,New York City |
Publication date | 1946 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback andPaperback) |
| Pages | 222 |
| ISBN | 0919948553 |
| Followed by | In a Yellow Wood |
Williwaw is thedebut novel ofGore Vidal, written when he was 19 and first mate of a U.S. Army supply ship stationed in theAleutian Islands. The story combines war drama, maritime adventure and a murder plot. The book was first published in 1946 in the United States byE.P. Dutton.Williwaw is the term, widely thought to beNative American in origin, for a sudden, violentKatabatic wind common to the Aleutian Islands.
The story is set on a U.S. ship in theArctic waters around the Aleutians in thePacific Ocean in the middle of the local storm season during World War II. The nervousness and tension of the crew and a handful of passengers at the approach of the williwaw is stretched to breaking point when the Chief Engineer, Duval, falls overboard in suspicious circumstances.
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