KNIGHT, William E. 1922-

PERSONAL: Born February 1, 1922, in Tarrytown, NY; son of Arthur Octavius (a patent attorney) and Mabel (a teacher and homemaker; maiden name, Jenkins) Knight; married Ruth Lee (a federal civil servant), August 14, 1946; children: Jeffrey William, Peter Edwards. Ethnicity: "White." Education: Yale University, B.A., 1943, M.A., 1946; attended Industrial College of the Armed Forces, 1961-62. Politics: "Independent, with a generally Democratic bias." Religion: Protestant.

ADDRESSES: Home and offıce—5221 Sangamore Rd., Bethesda, MD 20816; fax: 301-229-2246. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC, foreign service officer, 1946-74, vice consul in Genoa, Italy, 1946-48, second and later first secretary in Rome, Italy, 1948-51, Italian desk officer in Washington, DC, 1952-55, first secretary, consul, and head of economic sector of American embassy in Reykjavik, Iceland, 1955-57, and in Canberra, Australia, 1957-61, officer in charge of Italian-Austrian affairs in Washington, DC, 1961, deputy director of Western European affairs, 1961-62, assistant chief of negotiations division in Office of International Aviation Affairs, 1963-67, counselor for economic affairs, 1967-70, and deputy chief of mission, 1971, at American embassy in Manila, Philippines, detailed to senior seminar in foreign policy in Washington, DC, 1971-72, senior foreign service inspector, 1972-75. Inventor of wilderness rescue gear, 1975-78; Araluen, Inc. (rescue gear manufacturer), founder and president, 1979-83; Araluen Press, Bethesda, MD, founder and president, 1988—. Military service: U.S. Army Air Forces, pilot, 1943-45; served in Italy; became first lieutenant.

MEMBER: Authors Guild, American Foreign Service Association, Diplomatic and Consular Officers Retired, Washington Independent Writers, Army/Navy Country Club, Yale Club of Washington, DC, Randolph Mountain Club (president, 1985-87), Army-Navy Club of Manila.

AWARDS, HONORS: Distinguished honor award, U.S. Department of State, 1966.

WRITINGS:

The Tiger Game (suspense novel), Dembner (New York, NY), 1987.

The Bamboo Game (suspense novel), Araluen Press (Bethesda, MD), 1988.

Footprints in the Sand: Verse from a Life in the U.S. Foreign Service, Araluen Press (Bethesda, MD), 1993.

Letter to the Twenty-second Century: An American Family's Odyssey, Araluen Press (Bethesda, MD), 1998.

The Devil's End Game (suspense novel), Araluen Press (Bethesda, MD), 2002.

Contributor to Eurocommunism: The Italian Case, edited by Austin Ranney and Giovanni Sartori, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (Washington, DC), 1978.

WORK IN PROGRESS: The Byte Fairy, a screenplay.

SIDELIGHTS: William E. Knight once told CA: "I am living out my fantasies. I have been a foreign service officer, inventor, and entrepreneur (manufacturing and promoting my own inventions). Now I am a writer, and I am not impressed with the publishing field as an industry. It is the only business I know of in which the publisher/businessman generally makes almost no effort to promote and sell his product.

"My writing thus far has been set in places with which I am deeply familiar, which makes the presentation of local color and detail easy and, I hope, convincing. My stories are peopled by recognizable, ordinary, and for the most part likable characters rather than by giants of improbable courage, cleverness, or evil, as is the case in so many mystery and suspense novels. I think this makes it easier for readers to identify with my characters and imagine themselves having to work themselves out of similar situations. I also have the lives of my characters affected by what happens; they don't sail through the mayhem with no hair out of place and no teeth missing. In The Tiger Game, for example, the observer/first person narrator loses a coveted ambassadorial appointment because of the part he has played in the intrigue.

"I try to be fair with the reader, telling the stories as clearly as I can as I go along, so that he or she knows as much as, or more than, the narrator at any given time. I do not deliberately try to obfuscate or mislead. There are puzzlements, but they arise from the complexities of the plot and not from the manner in which it is presented. My aim is to write fast-moving yarns of adventure that achieve their effects through originality, humor, convincing characterizations, believable emotions, and satisfying intellectual puzzles. At the same time, I try to make the stories reflect perceptively the manners and morals of the national and social groups with which they are concerned."