Researching William Sanders

Born in Auckland, Sanders took up a seafaring career in 1899. He initially worked aboard steamships before transferring to sailing ships to enhance his career prospects. Sanders earned a master's certificate in late 1914, following the outbreak of the First World War. He then served aboard troopships in the Merchant Navy until April 1916, when he was commissioned in the Royal Naval Reserve. He completed his military training in the United Kingdom, after which he served aboard Helgoland, a Q-ship that operated against German submarines. His performance on his first two patrols earned him his own command,, in February 1917.

Sanders was awarded the VC for his actions while on his first patrol as captain, when Prize engaged and saw off a German U-boat that had earlier attacked and damaged his ship. He was killed in action during Prizes fourth patrol, when his ship was sunk by a U-boat. His VC, the first and only such medal to be awarded to a New Zealander serving with a naval force, was presented to his father and is held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum. There are several tributes to Sanders, including the Sanders Memorial Cup, a sailing trophy for yachts.

Sanders wrote several novels, including Journey to Fusang (1988), The Wild Blue and the Gray (1991) and The Ballad of Billy Badass & the Rose of Turkestan (1999). The first two are alternate histories with a humorous bent while the last is a fantasy novel.

He also wrote a number of mystery novels, including a series featuring Western writer Taggart Roper beginning with The Next Victim (St. Martin's Press 1993), as well as novels marketed by the publisher as Action/Adventure, beginning with Hardball (Berkley Jove 1992). In an author's afterword to his short story "Ninekiller and the Neterw", included in the Roger Zelazny tribute collection "Lord of the Fantastic", Sanders credits Roger Zelazny for talking Sanders into returning to writing SF/F stories with American Indian themes.

Sanders, a former powwow dancer, is best known for his use of American Indian themes and his dry, often cynical sense of humor. His most-anthologized and perhaps best known work is "The Undiscovered", an alternate history in which Shakespeare is transported to Virginia and writes "Hamlet" for the Cherokee tribe. The story won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History in 1997. Sanders won a second Sidewise Award for his story Empire in 2002. Sanders said that he considers his best story to be Dry Bones.

A stickler for detail and accuracy, Sanders studied history, which led to the publication in 2003 of Conquest: Hernando de Soto and the Indians, 1539-1543, a book begun some two decades earlier and researched by travelling extensively in the southeastern quarter of the US, by motorcycle and small boat and on foot, retracing de Soto's probable routes.

As a non-fiction writer, he wrote numerous articles on the martial arts and outdoor sports, as well as books on bicycle racing, kayaking, and backpacking. As Sundown Slim he wrote a humor column for "Competitive Cycling", a bike racing magazine in the mid 1970s. He also contributed to Bike World Magazine in the same period.

From 2006 until the final issue in 2008, Sanders was the editor and publisher of the online quarterly magazine Helix SF. During this time, he wrote a rejection letter in which he called Muslim terrorists "sheet heads" "worm brained" and "incapable of honesty." Sanders would later deny that he was referring to Muslims as a whole, but the controversy ultimately resulted in several authors asking to pull their stories from the Helix archives, after they found out Sanders had offered that option to N.K. Jemisin.

Sanders and his wife lived in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Sanders died after a prolonged illness on June 29, 2017.

Sanders married Beatrice Martin, who later became a prominent suffragette.

Sanders unsuccessfully contested Portsmouth in 1906 and in January 1910. He was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Battersea North at the 1929 general election and served as Financial Secretary to the War Office from 1930 to 1931, but lost his seat in 1931. He was re-elected for Battersea North at the 1935 general election, and held the seat until his resignation from the House of Commons in 1940 by accepting the post of Steward of the Manor of Northstead, a notional office-of-profit under the crown.