Born in Camden, New Jersey, a daughter of Robert R. and Aida Thomas, she later wrote that her "family moved quite a bit in the early years of my life."
[1]: 242, "About the Author" [2][3][5] After college, Roberta Thomas studied painting in Florence, Italy, for a year, and then married Tom Worrick, an agricultural economist, taking his last name.
Her Penn State classes included a 1971 Comparative Literature seminar taught by the novelist Paul West, who became a lifelong mentor and correspondent, and later published a eulogy for her.
[2][5][11][12][13] In addition to her relief and development work, Roberta Worrick wrote fiction under her chosen pen name, Maria Thomas.
"[14] Richard Lipez aptly described Maria Thomas' literary career as "late-blooming," since she did not publish a book until she was about 45 years old.
[13] Marianne Wiggins wrote in The New York Times Book Review that Thomas' "initial" work showed "sureness and polish, .
[2][14][15] In 1987, Maria Thomas published a novel set in Tanzania, Antonia Saw the Oryx First, (she disliked that title, and wanted the book to be called African Visas) which received widespread critical acclaim.
Margaret Atwood called it "a complex, deeply written and finely wrought double portrait of two women, one black, one white, picking their way through the debris of a shattered colonialism, discovering unexpected treasures buried in the rubble."
It also received highly positive reviews in other newspapers including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
"[25] Susan Heeger wrote in the Los Angeles Times that Thomas "believes in the power of narrative to reconcile contradictions and make mysteries comprehensible.
"[27] Come to Africa and Save Your Marriage received positive reviews in other outlets including the Hartford Courant, the Baltimore Sun, Newsday, and the (Raleigh) News and Observer.
Roberta Worrick was one of 16[b] people, including her husband and Congressman Mickey Leland, killed in a plane crash in Ethiopia on August 7, 1989.
Tom Worrick was accompanying Representative Leland as Deputy Director of USAID's mission in Ethiopia, and Roberta was working as a translator.
For example, Patricia Holt wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle, "Maria Thomas was a rare and extraordinary talent whose art will continue to inform and open up the world.
[7] In 1991, Soho Press published a posthumous collection of Maria Thomas' work under the title that she wanted to use for her previous novel: African Visas.
[8] African Visas also received positive reviews, many also expressing sadness for the abrupt end to her life and career, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Arizona Daily Star, the Hartford Courant, the St. Petersburg Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, the Orlando Sentinel, the Antioch Review, the Albuquerque Journal, the Tampa Bay Times, the Miami Herald, and the Anderson Independent-Mail.
[1]: back cover [38][39][40] Richard Lipez in the Washington Post, by contrast, while offering high praise for her literary talent, criticized the collection of stories as not up to that level of talent, calling it "an odd mixed bag" and saying "It's hard to know if Thomas ever meant for the unpublished work here to see the light of day, and her publisher offers no clue.
"[13] Lipez later added, reacting to the publisher's letter responding to his review, "less than half the material in this ill-conceived memorial is anywhere near the standard readers had come to expect from this extraordinarily gifted writer.