11 Facts About True Williams

Truman W "True" Williams was an American artist known as the most prolific illustrator to Mark Twain's books and novels.

True Williams illustrated the first edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and was thus the first to visually portray such characters as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

True Williams was sole illustrator of Twain's Sketches, New and Old and primary illustrator of Roughing It and The Innocents Abroad.

True Williams was a notorious drunk, which slowed his work and made him unreliable.

Truman W Williams was born on March 22,1839, in Allegany County, New York, to parents Asa and Louisa Keelar Williams.

True Williams began illustrating professionally in the 1860s: two of his illustrations appeared in an 1869 edition of Albert Deane Richardson's book Beyond the Mississippi, published by the American Publishing Company of Hartford, Connecticut.

True Williams wrote one book of his own, an adventure novel called Frank Fairweather's Fortunes, and edited a book of poems called Under the Open Sky.

True Williams died on July 25,1885, from tuberculosis and premature childbirth, and their premature son died shortly after.

On July 27,1886 True Williams married Rose Heath, the younger sister of Carrie.

True Williams died in Chicago, Illinois, from internal bleeding due to an aortic aneurysm on November 23,1897, at the age of 58.

Works by other authors in which True Williams was sole or contributing artist include:.