William (Bill)
Groneman was born in Rockaway Beach, NY in 1952, and grew up in the New
York City neighborhood of Howard Beach. He attended Our Lady of Grace
Grammar School, Archbishop Molloy High School, and Manhattan College,
where he received a BA in History in 1974.
He achieved his goal of entering the New York City Fire Department in
1977, after working for three years as a Uniformed Court Officer in New
York City Criminal Court. Bill served the FDNY and the City for the next
twenty-five years in the ranks of Firefighter, Fire Marshal, Lieutenant,
and Captain. He retired from the fire service in 2002 to continue his
writing career.
Bill’s interest in books and writing was sparked, early on, by adventure
classics such as The Last of the Mohicans, Beau Geste, and
Mutiny on the Bounty. The influence of 1950s television led to an
interest in the history of the American West, especially that of the
battle of the Alamo, and the life and death of its most famous defender
David Crockett. His writings on the Alamo and Crockett concentrate on the
many conflicting stories of both.
Bill sent shock waves through the Texas historical and antiquarian
document communities in 1994 when he dared to suggest that an iconographic
Mexican “diary” of the Texas revolution was a modern day fake. His
session at the 1995 Texas State Historical Association meeting in San
Antonio, where he presented a paper on the subject and on his
book Defense of a Legend, drew the largest
crowd in the association’s one hundred year history. The controversy
continues to this day.
He considers becoming a member of the Western Writers of America in 1994
as the most important step in his writing career. The annual convention
of this organization of writing professional has taken on the aspect of a
family reunion. Bill looks forward, every year, to bringing his guitar
and singing along at impromptu jam sessions with his friends,
writer/musicians Kirby Jonas, W. C. Jameson, Mike Blakely, and others. He
manages to blend his Irish music and songs of New York City into the
Western mix.
Bill’s interest in the West does not stop at the Rocky Mountains, but
continues across California to the Pacific Ocean. He counts John
Steinbeck as his greatest writing influence, and is an avid reader,
collector, and quoter of the Nobel Prize winning author. Of course, any
mention of California would not be complete without acknowledging Bill’s
favorite western musical group – The Beach Boys!
Bill continues to work on book and article writing projects every day, as
well as attending book signings and speaking engagements. He has recently
completed All Hands – a Novel of the New York City Fire Department,
the first in a projected fire fighting trilogy.
