Hugh Walthall literary papers

Hugh Wallace “Wally” Walthall (1948 - 2015) was a local D.C. poet, actor, playwright, and publisher.

Poet, Actor, Playwright, and Publisher. He moved to Washington DC in the late 1960s. His poems have been published in Washington Review, Shenandoah, American Review, Gargoyle, and the G.W. Review. Mr. Walthall sometimes published under the name Steamboat Jones. In 1978, Mr. Walthall’s book of poetry, ladidah, was published by Ithaca House.

Mr. Walthall was the founding publisher/editor, along with Richard Flynn, of Sultan of Swat (SOS) Books, which in the 1980s published books of poetry by local D.C. area poets. SOS Books was financed by a small class action settlement that Mr. Walthall was awarded for having been the subject of an illegal arrest during an anti-war protest. He was also the publisher/editor of the Journal of Pomposity, Shoddy Thinking and of Sex with Frankenstein, each of which lasted one issue. In the 1990s he began studying acting at the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory and appearing in plays at the Studio Theatre SecondStage. His play, “Jean Stafford’s Theory of the Lindbergh Kidnapping”, was staged there. Mr. Walthall worked at the library of the Walter Reed Hospital retiring when the library closed in the early 2000s.

Mr. Walthall was born February 12, 1948 in Roswell, New Mexico and as a young a child moved with his family to Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. He died in Washington D.C. on November 1, 2015.