Posted on 05/17/2019 9:47:02 AM PDT by Borges
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Herman Wouk has died. Wouk was famous for his sprawling World War II novels, including The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, and for his portrayal of Jewish-Americans in the novel Marjorie Morningstar. He died in his sleep today at his home in Palm Springs, Calif.
Many people might remember Wouk for a certain incident in involving strawberries in The Caine Mutiny, which became a film in 1954. After having a breakdown at sea, the tyrannical Captain Queeg accuses his crew of stealing a quart of strawberries and becomes obsessed with finding the culprit.
Humphrey Bogart played Queeg in the film, but he wasn't exactly what Wouk had in mind when he wrote the character. In the book, Wouk described the captain as "a small man" with "strands of sandy hair across an almost bald head." In 2004, the author told NPR, "Now Captain Queeg is Humphrey Bogart. There's nothing you can do about it, and I'm perfectly content with [it.] That was one of the great performances, I think, of his career."
The Caine Mutiny was Wouk's most celebrated book, but he had a substantial career both before and after it. He got his start in writing years earlier, in comedy. For five years starting in 1936, Wouk wrote jokes and sketches for the popular radio host Fred Allen. But after Pearl Harbor, the 26-year-old enlisted in the Navy and served in the Pacific. In his off hours, Wouk began to write Aurora Dawn, a novel that got mixed reviews. His second book, City Boy, did worse. But The Caine Mutiny put him on the map. It won a Pulitzer Prize, it was a bestseller and it became a play and a movie.
Wouk told NPR, "When I finished The Caine Mutiny, I wrote in my work journal ... 'Unless I'm mistaken, this is a good book. But it's not yet the war novel I mean to write.' "
In fact, it was the first in a run of ambitious books that included The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, each about a thousand pages long. And war wasn't Wouk's only subject. He wrote about the publishing world, a fictional Caribbean island and the founding of Israel. And in Marjorie Morningstar, he tapped into his own heritage as a New York-born child of Jewish immigrants to tell the story of a young girl trying to break into show business.
He really was the Jackie Robinson of Jewish-American fiction.
Jonathan Karp, president and publisher of Simon & Schuster
"He really was the Jackie Robinson of Jewish-American fiction," says Jonathan Karp, president and publisher of Simon & Schuster and editor of Wouk's last book, Sailor and Fiddler. "He was on the cover of Time magazine for Marjorie Morningstar, and he popularized a lot of themes that other writers — like [Saul] Bellow and [Philip] Roth and [Bernard] Malamud — would deal with in their novels."
Karp says that one of the reasons Wouk appealed to readers for so many years was the variety in his novels. "He really did not want to write the same novel twice. The writers he admired were the greats — they were the Victorian novelists, they were writers like [Thomas] Hardy. He wanted to write big novels about complicated lives and the cultures in which they took place."
Herman Wouk Says He's A 'Happy Gent' At 100 AUTHOR INTERVIEWS Herman Wouk Says He's A 'Happy Gent' At 100 Despite his popularity with readers, Wouk didn't always get a good critical response. The New York Times called The Winds of War long and "mildly interesting" with an "indifference to quality" and a "reliance on clichés."
According to Karp, many of the critics missed the point. "One of the reasons why he didn't get the kind of stellar reviews that writers like Saul Bellow got was because he was accessible." And Wouk did express serious ideas in his fiction. In one section of War and Remembrance, he reflects on the Holocaust:
"The accounts I have heard of what the Germans are doing in camps like [Auschwitz] exceed all human experience. Words break down as a means of describing them. ... The Thucydides who will tell this story so that the world can picture, believe, and remember may not be born for centuries. Or if he lives now, I am not he."
But Karp says Wouk was the writer to tell these stories. "I think he aimed high and had large ambitions for reaching a lot of readers — and he entertained millions of them." And with all of his major works still in print, chances are, in the years to come, Herman Wouk will entertain millions more.
It’s one of my all-time favorite movies and I have the DVD. I’ve watched it many times and I’ve read the book 3 times.
Wouk started the screen play but the director didn’t like it and replaced him.
Several of the actors are older than the characters in the book. For instance, Queeg in the book is 30, but is portrayed by 53 year old Bogart in the movie. I think his performance is excellent, though.
When they did the sequel the thought was that Mitchum was getting too old to play that role, but in the public’s mind he was Pug Henry and he did a great job. May have been one of the best roles he ever had.
What I really enjoyed about the series is the depiction of the invasion of Poland. Wouk and the series stayed true to history to tell the story. In fact the whole historical fiction genre is Wouk’s with those two books. (Well Victor Hugo can have a piece of that pie too).
The character of Pug was everywhere, but not at the top of the chain, just a couple of steps below.
You know, one say I went searching for the series on Youtube and did find it as a Spanish sub titled version. It was all individual episodes and took great work to try and mesh it all together. Well worth the effort.
He is one of those artists I thank God for.
He appeared as a mystery guest on “What’s My Line,” and that’s how I found out he started as a comedy writer. Coincidentally, Fred Allen was a panelist on that show. One of Wouk’s books came up just yesterday as a suggestion on Kindle. I knew he was old, and wondered if he were still around. A great writer and man. RIP.
I had been trying to remember the name of a Herman Wouk novel that I considered one his most underrated, it was “Inside/Outside”.
I remember my Great Uncle John telling me to read it as it was unlike any of Wouk’s other novels and he was right. It was different, funny and poignant at the same time.
Great novel.
I believe it is on Youtube, I watch it every so often as I am fascinated by pre-W.W. II life and history as well as the war years itself. That series does a great job with all of it.
Episode 3 about the battle of midway, could be is owm film.
[And I. M. Pei at 102.
Difficult to last past 100.]
And Jane Seymour was a big improvement over Ali McGraw.
This "Jackie Robinson of jewish authors" is an interesting claim. In college I took a class on short fiction and the fiction of ubran jewish authors in the 40s and 50s was obviously a pet rock of the professor. We read a lot of Bernard Malamud and Philip Roth and people like that. But Herman Wouk's name was never mentioned. I guess he just wrote novels, not short fiction. I never knew he paved the way for those other guys.
Kirk Douglas is 102.
I totally agree!!
----------------------Robinson Of Jewish-American Fiction,' Dies At 103,P.-----“I’m a lot drunker than you, so it will be a fair fight.”
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The Story of Job from War and Remembrance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwqohkCRylY
Didn’t care for Gielgud’s private life, but he was a heckuva actor.
[Kirk Douglas is 102.]
Yeah, but could he steal bases?
Still have Kirk Douglas & Olivia de Havilland both born 1916
As I get older in life, I think of how few years remain. There’s a tendency to think you’re winding down, and I think that is a mistake.
Here’s a guy that lived to 103. If I should live to that age, I’d live over half my current life span into the future.
There are many possibilities. People should pursue them and not think as it is human nature to think.
RIP Mr Wouk.
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