William Campbell Gault

Who was William Campbell Gault?

William Campbell Gault was an American writer. He wrote under his own name, and as Roney Scott and Will Duke, among other pseudonyms.

He is probably best remembered for his sports fiction, particularly the young-readers' novels he began publishing in the early 1960s, and for his crime fiction.

He contributed to a wide range of pulp magazines, particularly to the sports pulps, where he was considered one of the best writers in the field. Damon Knight, noted science fiction critic and one-time editor of Popular Publications, wrote the following about Gault's sports fiction:

I liked the characterization in those stories; I liked the description; I liked the fist fights; I liked the love interest. I like everything about them, except what they were all about.

Gault won the 1953 Edgar Award for Best First Novel for his crime fiction novel, Don't Cry for Me. He won the Shamus Award for Best P.I. Paperback Original in 1983 for The Cana Diversion and was awarded The Eye in 1984 for Lifetime Achievement, both by The Private Eye Writers of America. In 1991, he was presented Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award.