Early Years

William was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. He spent many summers at the family cottage on Martha’s Vineyard with his parents Frank Stewart, professor of Mathematics at Brown University, and his mother Caroline. William was a solitary child who created imaginary worlds, written and illustrated, and pored over his grandfather’s stamp collection — fueling his interest in other cultures, history, languages and geography. Over his lifetime he visited England, Italy, Japan, Scotland, Netherlands, Morocco, Turkey, Lebanon, Spain, Portugal, England — often creating travel journals with detailed descriptions and drawings.