Herman Wouk

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Herman Wouk in Jerusalem (1955)
Herman Wouk (2010) at the age of 94

Herman Wouk (born May 27, 1915 in New York City , † May 17, 2019 in Palm Springs , California ) was an American best-selling author and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. He was also known for the film adaptations of his works (including The Caine Was Her Fate , 1954).

Life

Herman Wouk came from a Russian-Jewish immigrant family and grew up in the Bronx . After attending Townsend Harris High School, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1934 . He later wrote for the radio.

During the Second World War he served in the US Navy on minesweepers and began writing his first novel Aurora Dawn on the side . His later works also often played in the context of World War II: for his novel The Caine Mutiny , published in 1951, about a mutiny on a US warship, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction . The novel was successfully filmed in 1954 with Humphrey Bogart in the lead role . The bestseller The Winds of War (1971) and its sequel War and Remembrance (1978) dealt with the Second World War and were each processed into mini-series with Robert Mitchum . He also devoted himself to other historical epochs or scientific topics, for example his novel A Hole in Texas describes the discovery of the Higgs boson . To date, Wouk's novels have been translated into at least 27 languages.

In 1945 he married Betty Sarah Brown (1920-2011), with whom he had three sons. She worked as her husband's literary agent for many decades. On the occasion of his 100th birthday, Herman Wouk published a volume with autobiographical notes in January 2016 under the title Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author .

Wouk died in May 2019, ten days before his 104th birthday, in his sleep at his home in Palm Springs, California, where he had been working on a book to the last.

Awards and honors

Zionism

Herman Wouk was a supporter of the Zionist idea , campaigned for it and received the Guardian of Zion Award in 1998 .

He said: "Zionism is a single long action of lifesaving, of snatching great masses of people out of the path of sure extinction." ( This is My God , 1959, p. 264)

Works

Novels

  • Aurora foam born. Roman ("Aurora Dawn"). Goldmann, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-442-06866-5 (consists of the parts Rosa is Aurora or The True Story of Andrew Reale, containing the faithful description of the great scandal along with the full wording of Michael Wilde's speech and Father Stanfield's sermon and The soap bubble )
  • The land in the moon. SF novel ("The Lomokome Papers"). Goldmann, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-442-23439-5 (former title Das Lokomon-Dokument )
  • Big city boy. Roman ("The City Boy"). 5th edition Heyne, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-453-00484-1
  • The Caine was her destiny. Novel ; 1952. ("The Caine Mutiny"). Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 2000, ISBN 3-8289-6777-9
  • Marjorie Morningstar. Novel ("Marjorie Morningstar"). Goldmann, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-442-06787-1
  • Storm flight. Roman ("Slattery's Hurricane"). 6th edition Heyne, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-453-00665-8
  • A man came to New York. Roman ("Youngblood Hawke"). Goldmann, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-442-08661-2 (former title Arthur Hawke )
  • The carnival never ends. Roman ("Don't Stop the Carnival"). Goldmann, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-442-08627-2
  • The firestorm. Roman ("The Winds of War"). New edition Goldmann, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-442-08538-1 (continued under the title Der Krieg ), filmed as Der Feuersturm
  • The war. From Pearl Harbor to the turn on the Eastern Front; Roman ("War and Remembrance, Vol. 1"). Knaur, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-426-00820-3 (continued under the title Weltsturm )
  • World storm. From Stalingrad to Dresden and Hiroshima; Roman ("War and Remembrance, Vol. 2"). Knaur, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-426-01078-X (continuation of Der Krieg )
  • The rabbi's grandson . Roman ("Inside, Outside", 1985). Knaus, Munich / Hamburg 1986, ISBN 3-8135-0144-2
  • The land of hope. Roman ("The Hope"). Goldmann, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-442-43759-8
  • The Glory. A novel . Little Brown, Boston, Mass. 1994, ISBN 0-316-95525-6
  • A Hole In Texas. A novel . Little Brown, Boston, Mass. 2004, ISBN 0-316-52590-1
  • The Lawgiver. A novel . Simon & Schuster. 2012, ISBN 978-1471112546

Plays

  • The traitor. a piece in two acts ("The Traitor"). Fischer, Frankfurt / M. 1960
  • The Caine was her destiny. A piece in two acts ("The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial"). Hunziger Verlag, Bad Homburg 1982
  • Nature's Way. Comedy in 2 acts . 2nd ed. Doubleday, Garden City, NY 1958

Non-fiction

  • He is my God ("This is My God. The Jewish Way of Life"). Krüger Verlag, Hamburg 1961
  • The Will to Live on. The Resurgence of Jewish Heritage . Cliff Street Books, New York 2000, ISBN 0-06-019608-4
  • The Language God Talks. On Science and Religion . Little Brown, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-316-07845-0
  • Sailor and Fiddler. Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author. Simon & Schuster, New York 2016, ISBN 978-1-5011-2854-7

Film adaptations (selection)

literature

  • Arnold Beichman: Herman Wouk. The novelist as social historian . Transaction Publ., New Brunswick et al. a. 2004. ISBN 0-7658-0836-6
  • Laurence W. Mazzeno: Herman Wouk . Twayne et al. a., New York 1994. (= Twayne's United States authors series; 639) ISBN 0-8057-3982-3
  • Harvey Sarner: A checklist of the works of Herman Wouk . Brunswick, Cathedral City, Ca. 1995. ISBN 1-888521-03-1
  • Stephen King : Herman Wouk is Still Alive (short story), The Atlantic Magazine , April 19, 2011

Web links

Commons : Herman Wouk  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bruce Fessier: Herman Wouk, dean of historical novelists, turns 100. In: Desert Sun. May 26, 2015, accessed March 20, 2018 .
  2. ↑ passings: Betty Sarah Wouk, Hazel Rowley. In: Los Angeles Times . March 22, 2011, archived from the original on August 17, 2016 ; accessed on May 19, 2019 (English).
  3. ↑ Ulrich Elkmann: "The Caine was his fate" - Herman Wouk for the 100th In: Zettels Raum. May 28, 2015, accessed May 19, 2019 . Claire Armistead: Herman Wouk to publish first memoir aged 100. In: The Guardian . May 27, 2015, accessed May 19, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Hillel Italie: 'Caine Mutiny,' 'Winds of War' author Herman Wouk has died. In: apnews.com . May 17, 2019, accessed May 19, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Wouk, Herman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH 17th May 2019
Place of death Palm Springs , California