Unlike some of his contemporaries, such as Norman Mailer, hw did not turn himself into celebrity freak show. He let his work speak for itself. Also he is living proof that you can be a decent human being and an observant Jew and still be quite successful. In world where fame and fortune is based on social networking and twitter feeds, this is a point worth making. Herman Wouk is worth remembering because he was mensch.
71
Many (most?) of you reading Wouk’s obituary will never have heard of “the irredeemably middlebrow James Gould Cozzens...". Labels aside, read Cozzen’s remarkable 1957 novel By Love Possessed and see what you think.
10
following suggestion of a commenter, I watched his appearance on what's my line. Very educational. Wouk, (woke) was tall, humble and direct. Fred Allen was brilliant -- and what a voice! Arlene Francis was handsome and cagey. Bennet Serf, such a sharp knife hidden in such a modest sheath! I remember not being able to put Marjorie Morningstar down one summer when I was a kid and being slightly ashamed, because it seemed such a melodrama and so (hiss) east coast. Winds of War series -- ho hum. Give me Mitchum in Thunder Road. But this guy was such a hard worker and produced so much that people loved, that he richly deserved his readership and success. Chapeau!
14
I first read and loved "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" about 25 years ago. Next to the audiobooks of these novels and found an immediacy to them that placed me squrely in the war years so that I'd have to shake myself back into the present.
When I finally turned to historians' accounts of WWII, I was awed to find how accurately Wouk had portrayed both the political and military aspects of the war, in Europe as well as the Pacific.
Thank you, Mr. Wouk, for this achievement.
45
Most sincere condolences to the Wouk family. What a talented writer and remarkable person Mr. Wouk was. I first read WOW and W & R in 8th grade and found the Henrys to be comforting friends and a better family than my own. I grew to love each character and I remember each one with great detail thirty years later. Mr. Wouk’s theme in WOW and in life was “There are no difficulties that can’t be overcome.”
Thank you for the inspiration Mr. Wouk. May you Rest In Peace and may your soul resides, may it be blessed abundantly.
22
Another word of appreciation. I read Marjorie as a teenager, was completely emotionally tied up with this beautiful maiden and with her disillusion and -- as I remember (un-)correctly -- with her being led down a false path. HW could really get to you!
I just might go now to some of his other books.
Rest in Peace, shalom,
Michael
20
As I worked my way through Wouk's blockbusters, beginning with Majorie Morningstar about 3 years ago, and ending with Youngblood Hawke in January, I was always amazed at his timeliness, his dialogue, his memorable characters, and their accurate place in reflecting America's history. Then, as I read The Caine Mutiny in 2018, I was completely stunned (yet again) by his extraordinary prescience of human nature and the dangerous dynamics of flawed and paranoid leaders put in positions of power. My regret: that I had promised myself after each of the books that I would write to thank him, with greatest admiration, for all the great stories he had shared with me. I place him right up there with Aaron Copland..... two great N.Y.-born artists of the Jewish faith who captured our vast American spirit with exquisite talent and insight and power.
25
My dad liked Herman Wouk's books a lot, and I have them now.
Looking through the comments, I am struck by how many people were reading Wouk's novels at 11, 12, and 13 years old. When I was that age, I was reading my father's other books too, those by A.J. Cronin, Kenneth Roberts, Lloyd C. Douglas, and Sholem Ashe.
What kid today can do that? And why not?
Good stories, good writing, intelligent dialogue, interesting characters, nothing dumbed down for so-called young minds. In not offering these novels to our children, we have done them a disservice.
Herman Wouk has died after a long, productive life and left us a legacy not many can match. As my family would say, May his memory be eternal.
56
I thoroughly enjoyed Winds of War and War and Remembrance. They brought WW II alive for those of us too young to have lived through the actual event. I haven’t read The Caine Mutiny and will put it on my list.
RIP Herman Wouk - great writer.
14
RIP: One of the greatest of the Greatest Generation.
12
I was probably 15 when I read THE CAINE MUTINY. At that time I was a quiet, obedient, earnest student who had spent his whole life in a small city in the flat, mostly arid plains of central eastern Illinois. I can still hear the clacking sound in my head, as Captain Queeg made his way around the decks of his ship holding two ball bearings in one of his hands. And I could feel the anguish of the first mate and other officers on the ship as they contemplated mutiny.
Along with this image I see the teacher of my high school junior English class, Sister John Joseph, who in her black habit that hid all the skin of her body except her face and hands. She let me and all her other students choose our own topics for our research papers. She let me write mine e mine comparing and contrasting Wouk's mutiny story with THE MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY.
Not until I had been teaching English to college students at Northern Michigan University for about 15 years did I realize what a service my teacher (all her students just called her JJ, when she was out of earshot) had done by allowing me to choose my own topic for my research paper. So. . . I thank Mr. Wouk for reinforcing my decision to make the teaching of English, especially writing, my career. Retired just two months ago, after a career of 49 years. So, thank you very much, Mr. Wouk.
33
Despite his other faults, Wouk created characters as realistic as people we know.
5
Being 12 years old in 1950 I was reading books like " the young
lion hunter" and " ken ward in the jungle " ( zane grey ) . along the way came cane mutiny. it was very critical of the the U. S. navy in a fictional book but the author was in a south Pacific storm and a newer book tells of Admiral Halsey 's typhoon voyagers, so he was really there and might have known about
typhoons.
2
Just went on Overdrive to download some of my favorites. Not one Herman Wouk novel is owned. Absolutely appalling. Such a great writer, dear person. I hope he is having a wonderful dinner in heaven with I.M. Pei.
8
I enjoyed reading his books. He wasn't Tolkien. He wasn't Nathaniel Hawthorne. He wasn't Umberto Eco. But he was a good enough writer to enjoy. I read "Marjorie Morningstar". And I read "This is my God". I read a few other books of his and, while he may not have been the greatest writer ever born he did know how to tell a story.
4
Back in the '70s as a young student at Georgetown I lived around the block from the Wouk's. One day in our rather tired apartment building we lost water just as we were going to boil some pasta (for a cheap meal). Pot in hand we wandered across the street to a beautiful townhouse. We knocked on the door and the lovely Betty Wouk could not have been nicer about helping. I remember thinking we got water from Herman Wouk, wow! RIP....you're with Betty again.
28
Whether judgments about Wouk's work as middle-brow or not seem idle intellectual confectionary. My Ph.D. in English, with a specialty and publications in Shakespeare, probably establish my high-brow credentials, but I think that critics merely like to show off in deriding a good story well told. I know only Caine Mutiny and the two World War II novels, both in print and on screen. The former taught me what the experience Wouk had taught him; the latter rendered palpable the experience, not merely the high school history, of that war, especially in the tragic course of the Jewish Jastrows trapped in Europe and headed for the camps.
17
Must read: "Don't Stop the Carnival".
I tell every wannabe restauranteur that they should buy a case
of Tequila and the book.
And a hamaca!!!
16
@David Andrew Henry
Yes - a great read! He captured so well the culture & idiosyncratic, patience demanding .. day to day life of old time island living & survival
For all of us who wanted to say "so long" to the 8 to 5 drag stateside Wouk's "Don't Stop The Carnival" was mandatory reading before quitting our job & heading the islands.
6
Alas, Herbie Bookbinder is dead.
Wouk's brilliant work The City Boy, was ignored until The Caine Mutiny became a best seller. I grew up with Herbie Bookbinder and his trip to Camp Manatou. I found the book truly enlightening.
Mister Wouk, thank you for a job VERY, very well done and Rest in Peace Sir, you've earned it.
24
Highly recommended to all with roots in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. There is a bar mitzvah party scene in one of Wouks books that is so hilarious that I still remember it 50+ years after reading it. It has to do with a kiska interwoven in the chairs at the reception.
3
Definitely old school American male--he fights in World War Two, writes an iconoclastic book on the war with "The Caine Mutiny" and lives to be almost 104. Tried to see him being a Naval Veteran myself, but even after age 100, he was simply a very busy man--still writing until the very end. He will be missed. Both the stage and movie versions of his Caine Mutiny had drawings by the imitable Al Hirschfeld (courtesy of Paul Gregory.) Hmmm, now I'm craving strawberries...
22
I first read The Caine Mutiny and saw the film decades ago. Yet Wouk was such a master, I never forgot the character of Captain Queeg, and immediately recognized him in our newly elected president in 2016. In my estimation, that makes Wouk a great writer. While he may not have been Shakespeare, how many writers can create a character who remains indelibly etched into our brains and gut? Moreover, the mutiny and attendant trial of the mutineers is a masterful presentation of human cowardice and how it leads people to do all sorts of reprehensible things. In this way too, Wouk anticipated Trump and the cowards who have condemned him privately but have remained mum in public, which is where condemnation would count. Like all remarkable artists, Wouk taught us much about this life of ours.
62
How many of us have had a Marjorie Morningstar in our past--perfection in our eyes and minds at all levels, only to discover years later how lucky we were to have dodged a bullet. Thank you, Mr. Wouk, for countless hours of joy, compassion, education, wisdom, and most of all, for wonderful memories brought back though your genius.
20
I read The City Boy and Marjorie Morningstar when I was about 11 or 12 (my aunt looked askance when I asked to borrow the latter, but my mother OK'd it). Now I need to re-read both to see if I enjoy them as much. I think I will.
16
I read The Caine Mutiny in the days before I was inducted into the Navy back in the early 60s. it shaped the way I saw and experienced my years in the service. I wasn’t surprised when I encountered arbitrary authority and incompetence. I expected it, in fact. But I also saw that guys did their jobs in spite of their bad attitudes. This remains one of my main memories of the Navy. Hard work and competence accompanied by continual griping. I think that’s how most folks experience the military.
26
In the early 1980’s, every few months when the phone rang at my group house on Garfield St. NW it was someone asking to speak with Mr. Herman Wouk. A fan since I read Marjorie Morningstar as a teen, it was a kick to have inherited his phone number. RIP
33
Another genius centenarian dies, days before his 104th birthday, while working on another novel. This follows the news of the death of I. M. Pei, whose architectural achievements defined the culture of the 20th and early 21st centuries. I have to laugh at the narrow-minded millenials, who have no appreciation for anything but themselves, who claim that 70-year-olds are too old to be president.
37
No mention of City Boy? For this reader at twelve or so the simultaneous introduction to NYC street life and the power of fiction to create a world wherein one could lose oneself for blessed hours on end. RIP Herman Wouk, the proof is in the hearty pudding.
15
I still chuckle at the report in War and Remembrance of the Russian order for condoms as part of the Lend-Lease deliveries. I've always wondered if that tale was truth or fiction.
8
In the summer of 1974 I was 14, and all three networks were broadcasting the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President Nixon. With nothing on tv, I made a trip to my public library, where the librarian recommended "The Caine Mutiny". I checked it out and stayed up two nights reading it. Later on I discovered The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, both of which had me riveted from the opening page until the last word. While serving as a junior officer on a destroyer patrolling the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War, I devoured Marjorie Morningstar. While stationed in DC during the dot.com bubble of the 90s, I read Youngblood Hawke, which has to be the best novel I've ever read on success and ruin. I've compared every other novelist to Herman Wouk, and none have come close. Mr. Wouk, thank you for entertaining me, educating me, and sharing your Jewish faith with me. You made my life richer.
76
@Chris The televised House Judiciary Committee hearings and "nothing on tv?" Perhaps one might have been better served with watching actual history in the making as opposed to reading fictionaled accounts.
5
For bringing World II to life with his fiction via "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance", he should be honored and cherished for years to come
47
I loved Marjorie Morningstar!
12
Winds of War was one of the best books I've ever read. RIP Herman Wouk
19
Because of my literary crush on Noel Airman, I read every recommendation he made to Marjorie Morgenstern.
13
Until I'd read the obituaries today, I'd had no idea that Wouk was viewed as middling by a large part of the literary elite. It explains much as why he rarely granted interviews; Granville Hicks' demeaning 1971 review in the Times sneers at his 'indifference to quality...formula...and failure of imagination.'
One particular criticism is particularly amusing in retrospect, "Even Pug Henry (is) never (a) living human being." In 1995, Wouk accepted an award by the Naval Institute and gave a talk on how he developed Pug, largely because for professional Naval officers he'd created a beloved hero that long demanded explanation. (Wouk's explanation was that Pug was a comer who had just enough bad luck in his career so that he stood no chance of becoming CNO.)
Wouk's own professional reputation was such that authors of specialist literature like the Battle of Samar and Spruance consulted him with their drafts throughout the 80s, 90s and 2000s. About the only disagreement that's emerged was that Wouk was far kinder to King than more modern historians; on the rest, both political and military, his research is still widely respected.
Wouk may thus have been the only writer capable of both combining the details of the war and Holocaust and making it grandly accessible to those of us too young to have experienced it.
Perhaps he wasn't the most brilliant technical writer, but man, could he tell a story, and without him we'd never have had one that desperately needed telling.
49
The Jewish literary canon just got a little smaller with the passing of Herman Wouk. First we lost Philip Roth last year and now Herman Wouk is gone too. Shalom to these great literary titans.
31
If you clink on the link that begins this article, you can watch a wonderful lecture that Mr. Wouk delivered when he received an award from the University of California at San Diego in September 2001.
In it you will see him proudly wearing a yarmulka.
Class always tells.
18
Wouk's memoir SAILOR AND FIDDLER was completed when he was 100. I was utterly amazed that this book received almost no attention, since it was written by some who was that old, and since its author had been so remarkably famous. Here is my own review:
http://jochnowitz.net/Essays/Sailor-And-Fiddler-M.html
11
I read Winds of War and War and Remembrance during a year I spent as a traveling photographer. Thanks Mr. Wouk for entertaining and entrancing stories.
9
If one were to look carefully at the forest instead of the trees, it becomes apparent that war is the longest running event in human history. War is the basic business of civilization? Perhaps that is overstating the case, but there is no doubt that war, leaving aside clean water, food and shelter, is the prime organizing force of nations. We are warriors as a first order of business. In writing about this state of being, Wouk did us all a grand favor and, as it seems, he lived a good and full life through that work, all the better.
16
"Marjorie Morningstar" was my first "grown up" book. It was the early 60s, I was 11, and my best friend and I "borrowed" it from her older sister. I had to hide it from my mother, (but then I had to hide everything from my mother). I went on to read every book he wrote, which probably has something to do with my life long fascination with World War II. Thank you, Mr. Wouk
24
I found Marjorie Morningstar on a bookshelf of a family for whom I babysat, age 13. The mom said I could read it if it was okay with my mom. I assured her my mom never said no to any book and off I went. Soon the caine mutiny, then off to the winds of war and war of remembrance. Never forgotten any of them. Thanks nyt and commenters for this shared tribute to a vivid author!
7
I spent my teenage years devouring all of Mr. Wouk's books. After finding "The Caine Mutiny" lying around the house I read it within a couple of hours, unable to put it down. I then moved on to most of the others and clearly remember how affected I was with "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" stories. O Absalom — My Son, My Son!
12
I will never forget Marjorie Morning Star.
How wonderful to be able to give enjoyment to so many people all over the world for so many years and years to come.
10
So what were his gifts and techniques that made him so effective in spite of establishment disdain?
3
@frankly 32 He said that he followed the rules of narrative structure. That is probably also why "high brow" critics looked down their noses at him, he wasn't breaking new ground or revealing something that hadn't been exposed before but was showing human nature in known circumstances of war. He was plowing through stories rather than breaking new ground.
Entertaining? Yes. I haven't read all of his books but it strikes me that some of them struggled to reach the mediocre. Not every time at bat is a home run but so what? A novelist, or any artist, who dedicates to the task and keeps moving forward should be honored for his or her best accomplishments and remembered well.
8
@Doug Terry. I appreciate your taking the time to answer. Where or what are these rules of narrative structure, I'm curious.
Wouk was a very good story teller, but his stories were like the old Hollywood westerns of my youth - devoid of ambivalence and therefore extremely satisfying to those who followed the rules. For those who did not there would be no happy ending. For example, the message of “Marjorie Morningstar” to young women who read it could be cruel. Those who strayed from the narrow and brightly lit path would be exploited, disappointed and ultimately recognize the error of their ways and of course marry a doctor.
9
@ALLEN GILLMAN
Marjorie marries a lawyer, not a doctor. And there are many astute observations sprinkled throughout the novel.
By the way, I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Herman Wouk in 1980 and he was a truly extraordinary man. And very humble! It was a thrill to meet him, something I've never forgotten.
14
‘Marrying a doctor’ didn’t mean your life or your marriage were going to be secure and chock full of cherries... those were 50’s mores... thank god for Woodstock Nation, and yeah even WOUK had to acknowledge that times-were-a-Changing ’ and not just for Sweet young things... I thought it was strange casting Natalie Wood, and Gene Kelly... in Marjorie Morningstar -both far more articulate and talented in so many of their later films...Natalie’s star keeps shining despite her tragic death, and Gene Kelly will always be dancing away in Paris, and to the Sound of Music...
1
listen critics, we cant all be rhodes scholars reading joyce and proust, we middlebrow folks needed wouk and michener and uris to teach us about life beyond our small towns. i had no idea he was still alive but i sure loved his books in the 50s and 60s.
29
a small claim to fame,
we both attended Townsend Harris, both
majored in philosophy, both enlisted in the navy and served as officers on 'tin cans', but our parents were immigrants from Russia--and there the comparison stops. However The Caine Mutiny so impacted me, having spent 2 years at sea, it was one of my favorite war novels...and at 95 I'm writing about those years and many others while my hippocampus still works.
104
@JoeBlaustein
I clicked on this obituary because my grandfather taught at Townsend Harris and I'm pretty sure Herman Wouk was one of his students. My grandfather's name was Solomon Hurwitz -- he taught math there starting around 1930, I believe, and stayed until the school was closed down.
9
@JoeBlaustein
Please keep on writing your own "war and remembrances" and, if at all possible, share the writing with the world at large. The Library of Congress has a WW II project on-going, so you might contact them to see if they would take your manuscript. There is also Amazon's CreateSpace as a place for self publishing. Best of good fortune in getting your stories down on paper.
13
Read both The Winds of War and War and Remembrance on a tuna boat off the coast of New Zealand in 1980. "Read" doesn't quite describe it. I was completely submerged in them. Loved that Pug Henry, always in the action.
40
We did not have -- could not afford -- children's books when I was a child, but my much older siblings subscribed to book clubs, and I read what they ordered and loved Herman Wouk's work from about the age of 10 or 12. I later learned the work was not well regarded by critics, but I found them entrancing. RIP, Mr. Wouk.
36
You describe the poorly received comic novel,”Don’t Stop The Carnival” written about his experience running a hotel in the Virgin Islands.I can attest to the fact that it is still a must read for anyone who owns property there.His follies still resonate and make us laugh -so little has changed in the nearly sixty years ago when he wrote it.He captured the frustrations of this remote area but also the adventure and joy.My copy of “Carnival” has survived three hurricanes there.
48
@JANET MICHAEL
You are correct. That books is something of a bible in the Caribbean, exposing the follies and false hopes of those who travel to the islands hoping to find a new way of life and forget the mistakes they made in the old one. You can find it in guest houses, hotels and rental properties throughout the archipelago of the islands to this day.
8
@JANET MICHAEL Among the fleet of charter boats in the Caribbean in the 1970s, Don't Stop the Carnival was a highly popular book. We could relate to every setback and frustration suffered by Wouk's hapless hotel owner. Every skipper had a string of entertaining stories about trying to run a business in that part of the world. I loved those years - and the people of the islands - and thank Mr. Wouk for adding to the memories.
3
Perfect time to reread The Caine Mutiny, while we have our own Captain rattling ball bearings in his pocket.
162
Best comment of the day. Right on
29
I, too, was swept up in Wouk's worlds in the Winds of War/War & Remembrance and am forever grateful. As a teenager in a small Kansas town I knew of my father's WWII POW experiences but had little knowledge or experience of Jewish life. I raced through the novels, and the maddening travails of Aaron and Natalie Jastrow and the feckless state department response helped fuel a lifelong search for justice; I currently work for an international NGO. And as already pointed out, the description of the Battle of Midway and the almost inconceivable "coincidences" that caused apparent US missteps to forge a perfectly imperfect balanced attack built on the selfless sacrifice of pilots guiding lumbering torpedo planes to almost certain death (but ultimate victory) brings tears to my eyes as I type this. RIP, Mr. Wouk.
48
Reading the obituary, and the comments, one question came to mind: how well are his books selling now? Are there any readily available statistics on that, outside of Amazon rankings?
Many of the comments were damning by faint praise, or apologetic in describing their affection for his work. It would be interesting to find out if the longevity of his work in any way approaches the longevity of the author.
3
Most underrated author of this time -- or is that a contradiction in terms?
14
I remember when he was quite a hero to some people in the Jewish Community.
5
RIP Herman Wouk.
His "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" are the most gripping novels about World War II ever written--even counting James Jones' "From Here to Eternity." I've read both of Wouks magnificent books at least three times. Their detail, accuracy and suspense never fail to excite me. His description of Aaron Jastrow's final walk to the gas chambers of Auschwitz is both historically accurate and heartbreaking.
If his work isn't placed next on the shelf to Tolstoy, they will fit very comfortably next to Hemingway, Melville, McMurtry and other great writers of American historical fiction. Wouk was one of our best.
88
Wouk also wrote a piece called "The Lomokome Papers" which was serialized in Life Magazine. But he never mentions it in "Sailor: Fiddler"... nor does anyone else. Why?
2
@Lee Downie, probably because it’s science fiction, which was less than respectable at the time, and remains a term many so-called “literary” writers dislike or even fear having applied to their work.
I just had chills when I read that Herman Wouk died in the early morning hours. Just hours before his death I completed War and Remembrance....for the fourth time. Winds of War and War and Remembrance are two books that I learn something new from each time I read them. Herman Wouk was a brilliant writer. By crafting together numerous narratives by numerous characters in different voices from all over, one really does begin to grasp the all encompassing canvas of World War II. The two mini series, though entertaining in their own right, don’t begin to give justice to these books. The last two times I’ve read these books have been post the 2016 election. There are so many parallels between what we are seeing in our country now and what was happening in Germany in the 1930s . Herman Wouk has so much to say about our complacency regarding our Democracy. I read these books for the hope and comfort that our country may be able to survive all this just as it did survive World War II. But at the same time, I am disheartened by how many of our citizens do not seem to have learned from or care about history, such that it seems we may be destined to repeat some form of Germany’s dark past.
89
I always thought Marjorie Morningstar was the inspiration for Dirty Dancing.....
18
That’s got to be the FUNNIEST LINE I EVER READ! seriously..,
7
While awaiting the birth of my first child, when my spouse was in the military, I visited the base library almost every day. During that long, lazy summer before my daughter was born, I read every Herman Wouk book on the shelves. RIP, Mr. Wouk.
33
A completely different side of Wouk is "The Lomokome Papers" which has great relevance in this age of industrialized warfare.
And I also like Marjorie Morningstar, Youngblood Hawke, Caine Mutiny, and the War pair. Although the latter are a bit tedious in parts.
3
"The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" is a spellbinding play. I'll never forget an astonishing production I saw in Los Angeles in the '70s, starring a rapt, deeply scary Hume Cronyn as Lt. Commander Queeg, directed by Henry Fonda (who'd acted in the play on Broadway as Barney Greenwald). Fonda's direction was a thing of beauty. Throughout, the actors entered and exited the courtroom in tight military formations, with the story's themes of discipline vs. impinging madness ticking like a bomb.
As for the novel "The Winds of War", it's well to remember that Gore Vidal, no pushover as a book critic, called it "superb" in the pages of The New York Review of Books.
36
I loved "City Boy" - a charming adventure story about a most unlikely hero.
4
A life well lived!
10
Herman Wouk on "What's My Line" (1955): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x80OFBOaBFU
9
“…reviewers who at best grudgingly acknowledged his narrative skill…” Heh.
I read The Winds of War (the first time) in one week, commuting on the train between jobs in Philadelphia and Wilmington, DE. In all, I read it cover to cover three times.
War and Remembrance had me in tears, particularly the section when Natalie and Byron meet up by calculated happenstance in Paris, where she has gone to protect herself and their child from the death camps. In response to her promise that she will love him until they die, Byron responds, “You and I will never die. Don’t you know that?” I read that one, cover to cover, twice.
Having both of them turned into mini-series was the subject of an entire job interview at Columbia University – even though the position a the dean’s office had nothing to with literature. At the end of the hour, I told the interviewer we should have talked more about the job. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. I got the job.
Narrative was just part of his talent. He wrote characters who had passion and dialogue that brought them alive. Reviewers who think “he is the worst of television, without the commercials” wouldn't know a master writer if they read one.
116
Loved the Wins of War. So sue me.
22
I loved Marjorie Morningstar, The Winds Of War, and War And Remembrance. I haven't read the Caine Mutiny. Yet. Soon.
8
Yiddishkeit and the story of America were integral to his life and his writing.
I don't believe we'll soon see another writer comparable to him.
32
Wonderful books! Wonderful stories.
Thank you, Mr. Wouk!
14
This is My God was on my parents bookshelf when I was growing up, so it was the first book of Mr. Wouk's that I read. Marjorie Morningstar was a great book for a teenager at summer camp. And The Caine Mutiny was an eye opener in many ways, and on my way to Europe with my (military) family in the late 1970s, I remember reading both Winds of War and War and Remembrance which helped me put together the history of the places I was going to live and visit.
He was a good writer to introduce a subject. Later I would read more sophisticated works or classics on similar topics, but I found the framework his novels gave me were helpful in absorbing and organizing the history.
16
Although I always loved the Caine Mutiny, while I was studying to convert to Judaism, I read This Is My God. It steered me towards a greater real world understanding of a new faith and grounded me for many years. Thank you Mr. Wouk.
56
C'mon, people!
I can't be the only guy who read The Caine Mutiny because it was on my high school reading list.
Even though it couldn't compete with Catch-22 or Slaughterhouse-5 in terms of what spoke to us in the 70s, it was still a fun, engrossing read.
28
The typhoon scene in The Caine Mutiny is the most exciting narrative I have ever read and better than anything I have seen on film.
15
I was a newspaper lit crit and I liked Wouk. So sue me.
57
Whenever I read snarky comments about best-selling authors, I view it as a combination of arrogance and envy.
112
@DSM14 Shakespeare's plays were beloved by the ordinary people.
8
All economists treasure The Caine Mutiny. The top student in the novel's midshipmen's school is a fellow named Tobit. Based on the top student of Wouk's class--the future Nobel Prize winner, James Tobin.
30
Besides being educational about regarding all aspects of the war, it’s operations, politics and in humanities/humanities, his books captured American domestic and social life and offered great roles for actors, i e, Natalie Wood, Robert Mitchum, etc...
13
Billboard in the background is advertising the Broadway show "A View from the Bridge", which opened in September 1955 and ran ran 149 performances - or ≈ 19 weeks.
That establishes a date window for this "undated" photo.
9
@Paul: actually, that's the billboard for the DeMille movie theater over Wouk's left shoulder. The movie version of "A View from the Bridge" was playing there in March 1962. Plus the headline on the newspaper may refer to John Glenn - a headline figure indeed at that time.
7
@Paul I disagree. The play was adapted for a movie in 1962. Mr. Wouk is holding a newspaper that looks to have a front page story on John Glenn's 1962 Mercury space flight.
9
The photo was taken on March 01, 1962. Photo by Carl Mydans. Available for purchase at Getty Images.
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I have enjoyed Wouk’s writing and story telling since my teen years. Now in my 50’s I still enjoy his work.
He captured so much of the 20th century experience with rigor and great understanding, and always, a human and humane touch.
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Sorry y'all, Marjorie Morningstar is the best, it is and will always be an American Classic. It is of a time and place (NYC in the 1930s-40s) but it is truly timeless.
I first read this book when I was 12 or maybe 13. I have read this book at least ten times in the many years that have past since then. Just read it again a few months ago. It's a different book to an older me, but it's still wonderful.
Wouk clearly loved Marjorie and she broke his heart. Which is why I will always cry when I read about the lilacs.
Crying now too.
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When I first read Marjorie Morningstar in high school, I was so angry at the ending that I threw the book across my room. As I reread it several the times over the years, I understood the truths in it so much more deeply. I’ve met a lot of Noels and learned the same lessons that Marjorie did. And it still makes me laugh - 47 airplanes indeed :)
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I loved Marjorie Morningstar, too. I think I read it when I was 12 or 13. Never had any interest in his other books, though. Might be time to re-read it!
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@Bobbi
Too true...that's exactly what I meant by the "different book to an older me". This novel had meant so much too me.
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I was a midwestern boy raised in a farm town and knew nothing of city life, Jewish life, or much else. Herman Wouk opened worlds for me with good storytelling, compelling characters, and a strong moral sensibility. I "graduated" to more respectable writers, by the standards of the critics, but Herman Wouk has always been my favorite.
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I always say that "The Winds of War" is what saved my life during my first long, lonely winter in northern Wisconsin. I also loved "War & Remembrance", "The Caine Mutiny", and "Marjorie Morningstar."
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South Dakota?! Who lives there, and WHY?
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@Ruth B
Well, there was that terrific girl I dated as an undergrad at BU in the late 1950's. She was from Vermillion, SD, lived on South Pine Street. Why? She was born there.
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God Bless Herman Wouk. Would not that all of us do “our level best.” Regarding the appreciation of those level best efforts, I paraphrase a comment recently attributed to Steven Speilberg “Nobody likes his books except the readers.”
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I read the Caine Mutiny in high school and didn't realize the way I absorbed it until I was lucky enough to go to grad school at Columbia. Walking the Morningside campus for the first time and seeing the names of the buildings from Wouk's V-7 school (was that real?) came to me instantly.
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I read "The Winds of War" when the the miniseries was coming out, and found it engrossing, but also personally depressing; not because of the subject matter, though of course it was a dark novel, being about WW2 and the Holocaust, but because all the women in the book were childish idiots whose main function was to get the men in trouble, or get themselves in trouble (and the men would rescue them). Though I wasn't a particularly enlightened woman in the 70s, the misogyny weakened what was an otherwise exciting read.
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@sloan ranger Excellent observation. I tried reading Aurora Dawn last month, but the female character was such a cardboard cutout that I put the book down.
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@sloan ranger
Even bad books teach us lessons and from your comments it appears Wouk qualified in the depiction of women. They show something missing in him or his times. Perhaps he never stopped to really think the female characters through and failed to realize, as any good novelist male or female must do, that women are the best, richest characters ever to be found in literature and...life.
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I am not a yahoo and I do not hate culture and the mind. Mr.Wouk wrote wonderfully entertaining historical novels. His fictional characters were always in the center of world events.His novels educated and also provided a wonderful diversion from daily activity. Thank you Mr.Wouk for your body of work. May you RIP.
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I read, "City Boy: the Adventures of Herbie Bookbinder" when I was twelve and have revisited it several times over almost a half a century. Whatever its literary faults, it was an immensely readable novel that really fired up a love of reading and a confidence that I could handle "adult" novels. I still laugh thinking of the scene of the Remembrance Day ( or maybe it was Veteran's day; I'm not totally familiar with holidays in the States) assembly where every single class presents John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" all with identical dramatic pauses. For that alone I will mourn Herman Wouk and the reading pleasure he brought me over the years.
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@Greenfordanger Agree. I was maybe 13 and it gave me confidence in grown-up literature.
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I worked with Mr. Wouk, through his literary agent, in the late 80s and early 90s. He was a lovely, gentle soul with a raconteur's wit. I loved listening to his stories about his early days in radio. May his memory be a blessing.
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Hete i am mrs. morgenstern and it is a testament to The longevity of the novel,Margorie Morningstar that i am to this day asked about that connection!
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When I was probably about 11, I picked up a copy of Mr. Wouk's The City Boy that was lying around the house (in those days I read everything I could get my hands on), and read it. I re-read it at least five times after that; although it took place decades before I was born, it felt true to my own experience of having been a (albeit non-Jewish) child born and for a long time raised in NYC. When my mother and I would drive through the Bronx on our way to visit my grandparents in Connecticut, I would think of that book and feel somehow connected to the borough. The book just captured so much about being a city kid (and those huge spaces inside the old walls of the public schools--I went to P.S. 40 in the '60's, and still remember the grayish light and the echo-y hallways and the smell of boloney sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs at lunchtime)--of playing late into a summer evening and the smells of the sidewalks and the East River and melting ice cream cones and the chlorine of public pools. I miss all that.
I never read another book by Mr. Wouk, but that one remains a piece of what formed me as a child, and gave me a great deal of pleasure. I'm grateful to him for that, regardless of what critics had to say.
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@NGB Thanks for the mini-review of City Boy... cannot wait to find and read it myself. Please don't just stop with that one but read as many other Wouk books as you can. Especially the WW-II books: Caine Mutiny and the Winds of War/War & Remembrance. You will be so glad you did. He was a great American treasure.
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Mr. Wouk wrote novels people wanted to read. So, this is a crime?
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@TAW The critics are forgotten people, their names lost in the dust. Mr Wouk's books will perpetuate his name forever.
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One of the best parts of War and Remembrance is the story of the carrier torpedo squadrons at the Battle of Midway. A total of 41 planes--obsolete piles of junk ironically called Devastators--took off that morning. Only six survived. Hornet's 15 were all destroyed (with one man surviving). Their sacrifice paved the way for the American victory, which many historians call one of the most decisive battles in history.
Wouk listed all of their crews in the front of the book, including their hometowns. Sadly, not only their names but also their astonishing heroism have been virtually forgotten. Hopefully the upcoming movie about Midway (scheduled for release on Veterans Day this year) will give those gallant men their due.
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Nice remembrance and tribute by you.
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@JTW The men of Torpedo Squadron 8 are. sadly far from the only forgotten heroes of the war. In 3 weeks, when the 75th anniversary of D Day arrives, you will see that virtually everyone under 40 has forgotten the thousands of heroes at Omaha beach and St. Mere Eglise.
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@JTW Yes, I honor the memories of Lt. Commander John Waldron, Commanding Torpedo 8 USS Hornet; Lt Commander Lance Massey, Commanding Torpedo 3 USS Yorktown; and Lt Commander Eugene Lindsey, Commanding Torpedo 6 USS Enterprise and their men. I quite remember the impression that passage in Winds of War made when I read it so many years ago.
On a personal note some years later I worked with a lady who's father served on the Yorktown at Midway and Coral Sea. Midway was a very hard fought and close run victory at a high cost in lives.
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May he Rest In Peace.
I read Marjorie Morningstar in college (when I was about the same age as Marjorie.) it was such an evocative book. After reading this article it’s easy to imagine much of this book came from his own experience. An American original.
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There's a lot to be said for crafting/creating a good read...
Ave & thanks for all the words.
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I recently reread 'Winds of War' and 'War and Remembrance' for the first time since I had originally read them in the 70's, and was struck by what page turners they were. Even though I had vaguely remembered most of the plot points, I found myself racing through both of them to find out what happened. He wears his heart on his sleeve during his narratives in way that may be old-fashioned now, but also gives his stories a touch of warmth and authenticity that helps during the grand and terrible events he describes. He was a great storyteller of popular fiction, and the critics should have just been happy with that. R.I.P.
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I first read "The Caine Mutiny" when i was in the 9th grade and have contiuned to read it and Mr. Wouks Opus efforts the "Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" every few years. I Thank Mr. Wouk for providing a wonderful characters that I will always be fond of. God Speed...
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I've only read one book of Wouk's, and I read it solely because of its premise: the attempt(s) to make a film of Moses. It's absolutely current epistolary -- mostly emails and faxes -- and it is sharp and very funny. Honest.
Wouk was a guy who really knew, inside and out, the business of making movies; he also really knew Moses and the Old Testament. I was intrigued and I was rewarded. [The Lawgiver], for those of us interested in both the meat-grinder world of making movies and the prophet Moses, delivers as promised. Didn't make me want to read another Wouk book, but I certainly don't regret having read and enjoyed [The Lawgiver].
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Until I read this obituary today I had all but forgotten the impact 'Winds of War' made on me - from there I moved onto more and more serious WW II and pre-war histories . A great story that did me a great service.
And 'Marjorie Morningstar', in Readers's Digest format, touched me when I was a boy and knew nothing of urban life in my own region.
A truly great story teller, thank you Mr. Wouk, you led me to real discovery.
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