Author
Herman Wouk
Herman Wouk wrote many novels most of which dealt with moral dilemmas and the experience of being Jewish. Many of his books became exceptionally popular, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for The Caine Mutiny, published in 1951. It was made into both a hit Broadway play, (recently playing again on Broadway) and a movie which was nominated for 7 Academy Awards and now considered a classic. The fictional story focuses on events leading up to and following a mutiny onboard a Navy minesweeper. The main character, Willie Keith, is a rich New Yorker who quickly grows up as he confronts the situation of having a neurotic captain who is slipping into insanity. Captain Queeg, who suffers from acute paranoia, incompetence and cowardice, believes that, "there are four ways of doing things on board my ship. The right way, the wrong way, the navy way, and my way. If they do things my way, we'll get along." As Queeg (played in the movie by the legendary Humphrey Bogart) obsesses more and more over minor infractions of shipboard rules, the crew must endure a full-scale investigation to determine who stole a quart of strawberries. There is plenty of Wouk’s typical satire and humor combined with irony, while the story is built on the elements of a tragedy--villain, victim, rescuer, court martial and hero destroyed by the ravages of war.
Wouk wrote his first novel during off-duty hours at sea in the US Navy during World War II and credits his years at sea on a minesweeper in the South Pacific as a major part of his education. In fact, the main character in The Caine Mutiny comes of age onboard ship much the way Wouk himself did. During life at sea, Wouk wrote of himself, “…the hard shell of a New York wise guy cracked and peeled off. I learned how men behaved under pressure . . ..” Perhaps he learned, as character Willie Keith did, that most men are forever changed, each in his own way.
Herman Wouk has been a full-time writer since 1946. One of his first books, City Boy (1948), is partly autobiographical. Among his best-known novels are Winds of War (1971) and War and Remembrance (1978), which was made into a television mini-series. Several of his books have been made into movies. Known for meticulous research and historical accuracy, Wouk has won numerous awards and received many honorary degrees for his work. His novels have been translated into over 30 languages.