Thames (Thomas) Ross Williamson was born on 7 February, 1894 at Genesee, Idaho, not far from the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. He was one of five children born to B. F. and Eugina M. Williamson. He grew up in Genesee, where is father worked as a stock drover and his mother earned extra income by taking in sewing.

Williamson graduated from the University of Iowa in 1917 and later attended Harvard, where earned his MA in 1918. In the early 1920s he taught economics for a year or so at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

On 9 November, 1927, he married Sarah Storer Smith in Bristol Maine. In the New York Times announcement of their marriage, he was described as an author, traveler and teacher. Another paper called him a globe trotting lecturer on economics.

Williamson was not only a prolific novelist and screenwriter; he also penned text books on economics and political science and published juvenile fiction under the pseudonym Waldo Fleming.

Williamson's novel, "Woods Colt" (1933), was, at least by Time Magazine, thought to be worthy of the Pulitzer Prize. In 1956 it was widely announced that Audie Murphy would star in a film adaptation of the novel and that Marion Hargrove would write the screenplay. Producer Paul Short had originally purchased the screen rights back in 1949 with Murphy in mind. For some reason the project never saw fruition.

Thames Ross Williamson passed away on 5 May 1961, in Monterey County, California. He was survived by his wife and a son. He is interned at the El Carmelo Cemetery, Pacific Grove, California.