William DuBois was born in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1903, to parents Virginia Markel DuBois and William Henry Thompson DuBois.[1][2] He graduated from Columbia University in 1925 with a degree in journalism and upon graduation went to work at The New York Times in 1926.[1][2] He went on to become an editor for the New York Times Book Review where he wrote reviews and articles. DuBois retired from The Times in 1973.[1]
DuBois wrote a number of Broadway plays including Pagan Lady (1930) and I Loved You Wednesday (1932).[1] DuBois wrote the play Haiti (1938) for the Federal Theatre Project. The play was produced by the Negro Theatre Unit and presented at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem[3] and toured to Boston.[4] The play's authorship has often been misattributed to the black scholar W. E. B. Du Bois because of the similarity of names.[5]
His novels include The Island in the Square (1947), set in New York City in the 1920s; A Season to Beware (1956), about the worlds of journalism and publishing, and The Falcon's Shadow (1958), about the travails of the theater.[1] He also worked as a silent writer with Frank G. Slaughter on 27 of his historical novels.[1][2]
