author
Bill Clothier
1921–2015
Best known for the science-fiction story The Semantic War, this American writer also lived a life shaped by the Dust Bowl, Pearl Harbor, and World War II. His work carries the feel of someone who had seen history up close and knew how quickly language and conflict can collide.
1 Audiobook
The Semantic War
by Bill Clothier
About the author
Born in Sylvia, Kansas, on September 23, 1921, Bill Clothier grew up during the Dust Bowl years in a farming family before later serving in the U.S. military during World War II. Available biographical sources describe him as a Marine machine-gunman on a battleship at Pearl Harbor, and as someone whose wartime experience stayed central to the story of his life.
As a writer, he is chiefly associated with short fiction, especially the science-fiction tale The Semantic War, which has remained available through public-domain and audiobook collections. Library-style author listings also describe him as an American journalist and writer of short stories.
Clothier died on March 20, 2015, in Burien, Washington. Detailed literary biography appears to be limited online, so the surviving picture is a compact one: a writer remembered for a sharp speculative story and for a life marked by resilience, service, and firsthand experience of major events in 20th-century America.