Wouk, Herman

Wouk, Herman

(wōk), 1915–, American writer, b. New York City. In The Caine Mutiny (1951; Pulitzer Prize), he made the protagonist-antagonist Captain Queeg a popular symbol of uncontrolled authority. A best-seller, it was later turned into a movie and then a play. Two later novels about World War II, The Winds of War (1971) and War and Remembrance (1978), were also very successful and formed the basis for two 1980s television miniseries. Among his other novels are Marjorie Morningstar (1955), Youngblood Hawke (1962), Inside, Outside (1985), The Hope (1993), The Glory (1994), and A Hole in Texas (2004). Wouk has also written two studies of Judiasm and Jewish life, This Is My God (1959) and The Will to Live On (2000).

Bibliography

See his memoir, Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author (2015); studies by A. Beichman (1984), L. W. Mazzeno (1994), and B. A. Paulson, ed. (1999).

Wouk, Herman

(1915– ) writer; born in New York City. He studied at Columbia University (B.A. 1934) before he was employed in New York City as a jokewriter for radio comedians (1934–35) and as a scriptwriter for Fred Allen (1936–41). He wrote plays, but is best known for best-selling novels, such as The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II (1951), Marjorie Morningstar (1955), and The Winds of War (1971).