Herman Wouk

{{Infobox writer

| image = Herman Wouk (cropped).jpg

| caption = Wouk in 1955

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1915|05|27}}

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2019|05|17|1915|05|27}}

| death_place = Palm Springs, California, U.S.

| resting_place = Beth David Cemetery

| occupation = Author

| education = Columbia University (BA)

| period = 1941–2015

| spouse = {{marriage|Betty Brown|1945|2011|end=d}}

| children = 3

| relatives = {{ubl|Victor Wouk (brother)|Alan I. Green (nephew)}}

| module = {{Infobox military person|embed=yes

| branch = United States Navy

| serviceyears = 1942–1946

| rank = Lieutenant

| battles = {{tree list}}

{{tree list/end}}}}

| website = {{URL|www.hermanwouk.com}}

| notableworks = {{cslist|The Caine Mutiny|The Winds of War|War and Remembrance|This Is My God}}

}}

Herman Wouk ({{IPAc-en|w|oʊ|k}} {{respell|WOHK}}; May 27, 1915 – May 17, 2019) was an American author. He published fifteen novels, many of them historical fiction such as The Caine Mutiny (1951), for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.

Other well-known works included The Winds of War and War and Remembrance (historical novels about World War II), the bildungsroman Marjorie Morningstar; and non-fiction such as This Is My God, an explanation of Judaism from a Modern Orthodox perspective, written for Jewish and non-Jewish readers. His books have been translated into 27 languages.{{Cite news|last=Fessier|first=Bruce|title=Herman Wouk, dean of historical novelists, turns 100|url=http://www.desertsun.com/story/life/entertainment/people/brucefessierentertainment/2015/05/26/herman-wouk-dean-historical-novelists-turns/27990017/|work=The Desert Sun|date=May 26, 2015|access-date=August 5, 2015}}

The Washington Post described Wouk, who cherished his privacy, as "the reclusive dean of American historical novelists". Historians, novelists, publishers, and critics who gathered at the Library of Congress in 1995 to mark his 80th birthday described him as an American Tolstoy. Wouk lived to 103.{{Cite news|last=Ringle|first=Ken|title=Fiction's Truest Voice|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/05/16/fictions-truest-voice/f39cd3bb-f5cf-45c9-8273-a815b8be4e5b/|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=May 16, 1995|access-date=August 5, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151002010411/http://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/05/16/fictions-truest-voice/f39cd3bb-f5cf-45c9-8273-a815b8be4e5b/|archive-date=October 2, 2015|url-status=live}}

Wouk was a member of the executive committee of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group.{{Cite web |title=Gop Platform Committee Urged to Give Support to Israel |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/gop-platform-committee-urged-to-give-support-to-israel |access-date=2025-05-23 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}

Early life

Wouk was born in the Bronx, New York, the second of three children born to Esther (née Levine) and Abraham Isaac Wouk, Russian Jewish immigrants from what is today Belarus. His father toiled for many years to raise the family out of poverty before opening a successful laundry service.{{cite book |first=Sean |last=Callery |url=https://archive.org/details/victorwoukfather0000call |url-access=registration |title=Victor Wouk: The Father of the Hybrid Car |publisher=Crabtree Publishing Company |year=2009 |page=[https://archive.org/details/victorwoukfather0000call/page/7 7]|isbn=9780778790563 }}

When Wouk was 13, his maternal grandfather, Mendel Leib Levine, came from Minsk to live with them and took charge of his grandson's Jewish education. Wouk was frustrated by the amount of time he was expected to spend studying the Talmud, but his father told him, "if I were on my deathbed, and I had breath to say one more thing to you, I would say 'Study the Talmud.'" Eventually Wouk took this advice to heart. After a brief period as a young adult during which he lived a secular life, he returned to religious practice{{Cite web|last=Quarles|first=Philip|title=Herman Wouk Bucks Literary Trends to Produce Best-Selling Novels|url=http://www.wnyc.org/story/216856-herman-wouk/|publisher=WNYC|date=January 25, 2013|access-date=August 5, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414112629/http://www.wnyc.org/story/216856-herman-wouk/|archive-date=April 14, 2015|url-status=live}} and Judaism became integral to both his personal life and his career.{{Cite web|title=Herman Wouk Biography|url=http://www.biography.com/people/herman-wouk-20631823|publisher=Biography.com|access-date=August 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150816060411/http://www.biography.com/people/herman-wouk-20631823|archive-date=August 16, 2015|url-status=dead}} He said later that his grandfather and the United States Navy were the two most important influences on his life.{{Cite book|last1=Shatzky|first1=Joel|last2=Taub|first2=Michael|title=Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists: A Bio-critical Sourcebook|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|date=1997}}

After his childhood and adolescence in the Bronx, Wouk graduated from the original Townsend Harris High School in Manhattan, Townsend Harris Hall Prep School, the elite public prep school for City College.{{Cite web |title=The Original Elite High School in New York City: Townsend Harris Hall – Baruch College Archives and Special Collections | date=June 2020 |url=https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/baruchcollegearchives/?p=282 |access-date=2022-08-05 |language=en-US}} In 1934 he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the age of 19 from Columbia University, where he was a member of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity.Membership Directory, 2010, Pi Lambda Phi Inc. He also served as editor of the university's humor magazine, Jester, and wrote two of its annual Varsity Shows.{{Cite web|title=Herman Wouk Biography|url=http://www.enotes.com/topics/herman-wouk|publisher=eNotes.com|access-date=August 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924051508/http://www.enotes.com/topics/herman-wouk|archive-date=September 24, 2015|url-status=live}} He became a radio dramatist, working in David Freedman's "Joke Factory" and later with Fred Allen for five years{{Cite web|last=D'Odge|first=Craig|title=Herman Wouk Makes His Case|url=https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0012/words_wouck.html|date=December 2000|publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=August 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019094332/http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0012/words_wouck.html|archive-date=October 19, 2015|url-status=live}} and then, in 1941, for the United States government, writing radio spots to sell war bonds.{{Cite web|last=French|first=Yvonne|title=Herman Wouk Donates Five Historical Novels|url=https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9514/wouk.html|date=July 10, 1995|publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=August 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525233740/http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9514/wouk.html|archive-date=May 25, 2015|url-status=live}}

Career

=Military career=

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wouk joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1942 and served in the Pacific Theater during World War II, an experience he later characterized as educational: "I learned about machinery, I learned how men behaved under pressure, and I learned about Americans." Wouk served as an officer aboard two destroyer minesweepers (DMS), the {{USS|Zane|DD-337|6}} and {{USS|Southard|DD-207|6}}, becoming executive officer of the Southard while holding the rank of lieutenant. He participated in around six invasions and won a number of battle stars. Wouk was in the New Georgia Campaign, the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, and the Battle of Okinawa.Wouk was not at the Battle of Lingayen Gulf, though his future ship Southard was. Wouk was still serving on the ship Zane during the battle of Lingayen Gulf, according to the more accurate Navy Source {{cite web|url=https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/05/17/wwii-veteran-herman-wouk-a-consummate-writer-until-the-end-dies-at-103/|title=Italie, Hillel, "WWII veteran Herman Wouk, a consummate writer until the end, dies at 103"|work=NavyTimes|date=May 17, 2019 |access-date=May 19, 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://navy.togetherweserved.com/usn/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApps?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=Person&ID=564670|title=Herman Wouk|work=TogetherWeServed.com|publisher=TogetherWeServed Inc.|location=Chatsworth, Los Angeles|access-date=May 17, 2019}} In off-duty hours aboard ship he started writing a novel, Aurora Dawn, which he originally titled Aurora Dawn; or, The True history of Andrew Reale, containing a faithful account of the Great Riot, together with the complete texts of Michael Wilde's oration and Father Stanfield's sermon. Wouk sent a copy of the opening chapters to philosophy professor Irwin Edman, under whom he studied at Columbia,{{Cite web|last=Sachare|first=Alex|title=Herman Wouk '34 Raises Caine, Again|url=http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/may02/may02_profile_wouk.html|date=May 2002|work=Columbia College Today|access-date=August 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923210730/http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/may02/may02_profile_wouk.html|archive-date=September 23, 2015|url-status=live}} who quoted a few pages verbatim to a New York editor. The result was a publisher's contract sent to Wouk's ship, then off the coast of Okinawa. Aurora Dawn was published in 1947 and became a Book of the Month Club main selection. Wouk finished his tour of duty in 1946.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/17/herman-wouk-obituary|title=Herman Wouk obituary: author of The Caine Mutiny and The Winds of War who championed traditional Jewish values and American patriotism|first=Eric|last=Homberger|work=The Guardian|date=May 17, 2019|access-date=May 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518010323/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/17/herman-wouk-obituary|archive-date=May 18, 2019|url-status=live}}

=Writing career=

His second novel, City Boy, proved to be a commercial disappointment when it was published in 1948. Wouk claimed{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} it was largely ignored amid the excitement over Norman Mailer's bestselling World War II novel The Naked and the Dead.

While writing his next novel, Wouk read each chapter to his wife as it was completed and she remarked that if they did not like this one, he had better take up another line of work (a line he would give to the character of the editor Jeannie Fry in his novel Youngblood Hawke, 1962). The novel, The Caine Mutiny (1951), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. A best-seller, drawn from his wartime experiences aboard minesweepers during World War II, The Caine Mutiny was adapted by the author into a Broadway play called The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. In 1954 Columbia Pictures released a film version of the book, with Humphrey Bogart portraying Lt. Commander Philip Francis Queeg, captain of the fictional USS Caine.{{Cite news|last=Armistead|first=Claire|title=Herman Wouk to publish first memoir aged 100|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/27/herman-wouk-memoir-100-sailor-and-fiddler|work=The Guardian|location=Kings Place, London|date=May 27, 2015|access-date=August 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150814144713/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/27/herman-wouk-memoir-100-sailor-and-fiddler|archive-date=August 14, 2015|url-status=live}}

Wouk's next novel after The Caine Mutiny was Marjorie Morningstar (1955), which earned him a Time magazine cover story. Three years later Warner Bros. made it into a movie of the same name starring Natalie Wood, Gene Kelly and Claire Trevor. His next novel, a paperback, was Slattery's Hurricane (1956), which he had written in 1948 as the basis for the screenplay for the film of the same name. Wouk's first work of non-fiction was 1959's This is My God: The Jewish Way of Life.

In the 1960s, he wrote Youngblood Hawke (1962), a drama about the rise and fall of a young writer, modeled on the life of Thomas Wolfe; and Don't Stop the Carnival (1965), a comedy about escaping mid-life crisis by moving to the Caribbean, which was loosely based on Wouk's own experiences. Youngblood Hawke was serialized in McCall's magazine from March to July 1962. A movie version starred James Franciscus and Suzanne Pleshette and was released by Warner Brothers in 1964. In 1997 Don't Stop the Carnival was turned into a short-lived musical by Jimmy Buffett.{{cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/herman-wouk-author-of-caine-mutiny-winds-of-war-dead|title=Herman Wouk, author of 'Caine Mutiny,' 'Winds of War,' dead at 103|date=May 17, 2019|publisher=Fox News|agency=Associated Press|access-date=May 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518010340/https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/herman-wouk-author-of-caine-mutiny-winds-of-war-dead|archive-date=May 18, 2019|url-status=live}}

File:Famous writer Herman Wouk arrived in Israel (FL45728797).jpg

In the 1970s, Wouk published two monumental novels, The Winds of War (1971) and a sequel, War and Remembrance (1978). He described Remembrance, which included a devastating depiction of the Holocaust, as "the main tale I have to tell." Both were made into successful television mini-series, the first in 1983 and the second in 1988. Although they were made several years apart, both were directed by Dan Curtis and both starred Robert Mitchum as Captain Victor "Pug" Henry, the main character. The novels were historical fiction. Each had three layers: the story told from the viewpoints of Captain Henry and his circle of family and friends; a more or less straightforward historical account of the events of the war; and an analysis by a member of Adolf Hitler's military staff, the insightful fictional General Armin von Roon. Wouk devoted "thirteen years of extraordinary research and long, arduous composition" to these two novels, noted Arnold Beichman. "The seriousness with which Wouk has dealt with the war can be seen in the prodigious amount of research, reading, travel and conferring with experts, the evidence of which may be found in the uncatalogued boxes at Columbia University" that contain the author's papers.{{Cite book|last=Beichman|first=Arnold|title=Herman Wouk: The Novelist as Social Historian|publisher=Transaction Books|date=1984}}

Inside, Outside (1985) was the story of four generations of a Russian Jewish family and its travails in Russia, the U.S. and Israel. The Hope (1993) and its sequel, The Glory (1994), were historical novels about the first 33 years of Israel's history. They were followed by The Will to Live On: This is Our Heritage (2000), a whirlwind tour of Jewish history and sacred texts and companion volume to This is My God.{{Cite web|title=The Will to Live On: This is Our Heritage|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-019608-0|work=Publishers Weekly|access-date=August 5, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924083140/http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-019608-0|archive-date=September 24, 2015|url-status=live}}

In 1995, Wouk was honored on his 80th birthday by the Library of Congress with a symposium on his career. In attendance were David McCullough, Robert Caro, and Daniel Boorstin, among others.{{cite news |last=Italie |first=Hillel |url=https://apnews.com/1ee28153a1e54f52a516352171c7f41d |title='Caine Mutiny,' 'Winds of War' author Herman Wouk has died |work=Associated Press |date=May 17, 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517172901/https://apnews.com/1ee28153a1e54f52a516352171c7f41 |archive-date=May 17, 2019 |access-date=May 17, 2019 }}

A Hole in Texas (2004) was a novel about the discovery of the Higgs boson, whose existence was proven nine years later. The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion (2010) was an exploration of the tension between religion and science which originated in a discussion Wouk had with theoretical physicist Richard Feynman.{{Cite news|last=Person, Jr.|first=James E.|title=Book REview: 'The Language God Talks'|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/18/book-review-the-language-god-talks/|work=The Washington Times|date=June 18, 2010|access-date=August 5, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150508142130/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/18/book-review-the-language-god-talks/|archive-date=May 8, 2015|url-status=live}}

The Lawgiver (2012) was an epistolary novel about a contemporary Hollywood writer of a movie script about Moses, with the consulting help of a nonfictional character, Herman Wouk, a "mulish ancient" who became involved despite the strong misgivings of his wife.{{Cite news|last=Barnes|first=Brooks|title=At 97, He Has a Book (or 2) Left|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/books/herman-wouk-on-his-new-book-the-lawgiver.html|work=The New York Times|date=November 12, 2012|access-date=August 5, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150709114803/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/books/herman-wouk-on-his-new-book-the-lawgiver.html|archive-date=July 9, 2015|url-status=live}}

Wouk's memoir, titled Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author, was published in January 2016 to mark his 100th birthday.{{Cite magazine|last=Falcone|first=Dana Rose|title=Herman Wouk to release memoir in honor of 100th birthday|url=https://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/22/herman-wouk-release-memoir-honor-100th-birthday|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|date=May 22, 2015|access-date=August 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924161020/http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/22/herman-wouk-release-memoir-honor-100th-birthday|archive-date=September 24, 2015|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|last=Dirda|first=Michael|title=At 100, Herman Wouk re-emerges with a memoir, 'Sailor and Fiddler'|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/at-100-herman-wouk-re-emerges-with-a-memoir-sailor-and-fiddler/2016/01/06/e74a1d3a-afcb-11e5-b711-1998289ffcea_story.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=January 6, 2016|access-date=January 7, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107144620/https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/at-100-herman-wouk-re-emerges-with-a-memoir-sailor-and-fiddler/2016/01/06/e74a1d3a-afcb-11e5-b711-1998289ffcea_story.html|archive-date=January 7, 2016|url-status=live}} NPR called it "a lovely coda to the career of a man who made American literature a kinder, smarter, better place." It was his last book.{{Cite news|last=Schaub|first=Michael|title='Sailor And Fiddler' Is A Lovely Coda To A Literary Career|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/12/29/461281423/sailor-and-fiddler-is-a-lovely-coda-to-a-literary-career|publisher=NPR|date=December 29, 2015|access-date=January 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160114074735/http://www.npr.org/2015/12/29/461281423/sailor-and-fiddler-is-a-lovely-coda-to-a-literary-career|archive-date=January 14, 2016|url-status=live}}{{cite news |title=Herman Wouk, author of 'The Caine Mutiny' and 'The Winds of War,' dies at 103 |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-herman-wouk-idUSKCN1SN2C2 |access-date=8 May 2020 |work=Reuters |date=17 May 2019 |language=en}}

Daily journal

Wouk kept a personal diary from 1937.{{cite magazine |magazine=Vanity Fair |title=Proust Questionnaire |date=October 2012 |page=272}} On September 10, 2008, he presented his journals, numbering more than 100 volumes {{As of|2012|lc=y}}, to the Library of Congress at a ceremony in which he was honored with the first Library of Congress Lifetime Achievement Award for the Writing of Fiction (now the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction). Wouk often referred to his journals to check dates and facts in his writing, and he hesitated to let the originals out of his possession. A solution was negotiated and the entire set of volumes was scanned into digital format.{{cite web|url=http://www.twinimaging.com/news.html|title=Twin Imaging Technology preserves personal journals for Pulitzer Prize author, Herman Wouk|date=July 2008|publisher=Twin Imaging Technology|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100308143230/http://www.twinimaging.com/news.html|archive-date=March 8, 2010|access-date=February 22, 2010|url-status=dead}}

Personal life and death

In 1944 Wouk met Betty Sarah Brown, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Southern California, who was working as a personnel specialist in the navy while the Zane was undergoing repairs in San Pedro, California. The two fell in love and after Wouk's ship went back to sea, Betty, who was born a Protestant and was raised in Grangeville, Idaho, began her study of Judaism and converted on her twenty-fifth birthday. They were married on December 10, 1945.

After the birth of the first of their three children the following year, Wouk became a full-time writer to support his growing family. His first-born son, Abraham Isaac Wouk, who was named after Wouk's late father, drowned in a swimming pool accident in Cuernavaca, Mexico, shortly before his fifth birthday. Wouk later dedicated War and Remembrance to him with the Biblical words "בלע המות לנצח – He will destroy death forever" (Isaiah 25:8). Their second and third children were Iolanthe Woulff (born 1950 as Nathaniel Wouk, a Princeton University graduate and an author{{Cite web|last=Snow|first=Nicholas|title=Transgendered Author/Novelist Iolanthe Woulff|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Vel8Psc9E|date=July 12, 2009|access-date=August 2, 2015|via=YouTube|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103235856/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Vel8Psc9E|archive-date=January 3, 2016|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|title=Author Iolanthe Woulff to appear at the Palm Springs Public Library|url=https://palmspringslibrary.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/author-iolanthe-woulff-to-appear-at-the-palm-springs-public-library/|access-date=August 5, 2015|url-access=registration|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304212911/https://palmspringslibrary.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/author-iolanthe-woulff-to-appear-at-the-palm-springs-public-library/|archive-date=March 4, 2016|url-status=live}}) and Joseph (born 1954, a Columbia graduate, an attorney, a film producer, and a writer who served in the Israeli Navy).{{Cite web|title=A Sclerotic Goes to War|date=January 3, 2009 |url=https://warsclerotic.wordpress.com/video-reports/|access-date=August 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018091148/https://warsclerotic.wordpress.com/video-reports/|archive-date=October 18, 2015|url-status=live}} He had three grandchildren.

The Wouks lived in New York, Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, where he wrote Don't Stop the Carnival, and at 3255 N Street N.W.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2014/08/15/house-of-the-week-federal-era-townhouse-in-georgetown-for-10-5m/|title=House of the Week {{!}} Federal-era townhouse in Georgetown for $10.5M|last=Orton|first=Kathy|date=August 15, 2014|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=April 18, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180419120842/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2014/08/15/house-of-the-week-federal-era-townhouse-in-georgetown-for-10-5m/|archive-date=April 19, 2018}} in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., where he researched and wrote The Winds of War and War and Remembrance,{{Cite magazine| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HEAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA53 | last=Howard|first=Jane|title=Herman Wouk Surfaces Again|magazine=Life|date=November 26, 1971|access-date=August 5, 2015}} before settling in Palm Springs, California. His wife, who served for decades as his literary agent, died in Palm Springs on March 17, 2011.{{Cite news|title=Betty Sarah Wouk — Wife and agent of 'Caine Mutiny' author|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2011-mar-22-la-me-passings-20110322-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|date=March 23, 2011|access-date=August 5, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160112145309/http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/22/local/la-me-passings-20110322|archive-date=January 12, 2016|url-status=live}}

"I wrote nothing that was of the slightest consequence before I met Sarah," Wouk recalled after her death. "I was a gag man for Fred Allen for five years. In his time, he was the greatest of the radio comedians. And jokes work for what they are but they're ephemeral. They just disappear. And that was the kind of thing I did up until the time that I met Sarah and we married. And I would say my literary career and my mature life both began with her."{{Cite web|title='The Lawgiver': Telling Moses' Story, Differently|url=https://www.npr.org/2012/11/17/165345515/the-lawgiver-telling-moses-story-differently|publisher=National Public Radio interview|date=November 17, 2012|access-date=August 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930084119/http://www.npr.org/2012/11/17/165345515/the-lawgiver-telling-moses-story-differently|archive-date=September 30, 2015|url-status=live}}

Wouk's brother Victor died in 2005.{{cite news|url=https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/The-Caine-Mutiny-author-Herman-Wouk-dies-at-103-590007|title='The Caine Mutiny' Author Herman Wouk Dies At 103|agency=Reuters|work=The Jerusalem Post|publisher=The Jerusalem Post Group|location=Jerusalem|date=May 17, 2019|access-date=May 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518015042/https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/The-Caine-Mutiny-author-Herman-Wouk-dies-at-103-590007|archive-date=May 18, 2019|url-status=live}} His nephew, Alan I. Green, was a psychiatrist at Dartmouth College.{{Cite journal |last1=Coyle |first1=Joseph T. |last2=Holtzheimer |first2=Paul E. |last3=Salzman |first3=Carl |date=April 2021 |title=In memoriam—Alan Ivan Green, MD (1943–2020) |journal=Neuropsychopharmacology |language=en |volume=46 |issue=5 |pages=1058–1059 |doi=10.1038/s41386-021-00966-y |s2cid=231850005 |issn=1740-634X|doi-access=free |pmc=8115167 }}

Wouk died in his sleep in his home in Palm Springs, California, on May 17, 2019, at the age of 103, ten days before his 104th birthday.{{Cite web|title='Caine Mutiny,' 'Winds of War' author Herman Wouk has died|url=https://apnews.com/1ee28153a1e54f52a516352171c7f41d|work=Associated Press|date=May 17, 2019|access-date=May 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517170220/https://apnews.com/1ee28153a1e54f52a516352171c7f41d?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP|archive-date=May 17, 2019|url-status=dead}}

Degrees

Columbia University, New York, 1934 (A.B.){{cite web|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-herman-wouk-author-died-20190517-sdh5e2z75zg6flwcuml4yo2buu-story.html|title=Herman Wouk, Pulitzer Prize winning author of 'Caine Mutiny,' 'Winds of War,' has died|first=Kassidy|last=Vavra|website=Daily News|date=May 17, 2019 |location=New York|access-date=May 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518011425/https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-herman-wouk-author-died-20190517-sdh5e2z75zg6flwcuml4yo2buu-story.html|archive-date=May 18, 2019|url-status=live}}
Yeshiva University, New York, 1954 (Hon. L.H.D.)
Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1960 (Hon. D.Lit.)
American International College, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1979 (Hon. Litt.D.)
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, 1990 (Hon. Ph.D.)

Awards and honors

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 1952{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/herman-wouk-pulitzer-prize-winning-master-of-sweeping-historical-fiction-dies-a-103/2019/05/17/3eefd034-78be-11e9-b3f5-5673edf2d127_story.html?noredirect=on|title=Herman Wouk, Pulitzer Prize-winning master of sweeping historical fiction, dies at 103|first=Becky|last=Krystal|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=May 17, 2019|access-date=May 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518011439/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/herman-wouk-pulitzer-prize-winning-master-of-sweeping-historical-fiction-dies-a-103/2019/05/17/3eefd034-78be-11e9-b3f5-5673edf2d127_story.html|archive-date=May 18, 2019|url-status=live}}
Columbia University Medal for Excellence, 1952
Alexander Hamilton Medal, 1980{{cite web |url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/alumni/about/honors/alexander-hamilton-medal |title=Alexander Hamilton Medal |date=December 14, 2016 |publisher=Columbia University |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226130159/https://www.college.columbia.edu/alumni/about/honors/alexander-hamilton-medal |archive-date=December 26, 2018 |access-date=May 17, 2019 }}

Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement, 1986{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/}}{{cite news|last=Roberts |first=Roxanne |date= May 4, 2003 |title= You Have A Dream |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2003/05/04/you-have-a-dream/64bb0f12-305d-4f0c-ad42-f29ca099ea87/ |newspaper= The Washington Post}}
United States Navy Memorial Foundation Lone Sailor Award, 1987{{cite web |url=https://www.navymemorial.org/previous-lone-sailor-award-recipients |title=Lone Sailor Award Recipients |publisher=United States Navy Memorial |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404012221/https://www.navymemorial.org/previous-lone-sailor-award-recipients |archive-date=April 4, 2019 |access-date=May 17, 2019 }}
Bar-Ilan University Guardian of Zion Award, 1998{{cite web |url=https://www1.biu.ac.il/indexE.php?id=33&pt=20&pid=117&level=2&cPath=33&type=1&news=3326 |title=Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies Names Natan Sharansky its Guardian of Zion for 2019 |publisher=Bar-Ilan University |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517211517/https://www1.biu.ac.il/indexE.php?id=33&pt=20&pid=117&level=2&cPath=33&type=1&news=3326 |archive-date=May 17, 2019 |access-date=May 17, 2019 }}

Jewish Book Council Lifetime Literary Achievement Award, 1999
Library of Congress Lifetime Achievement Award for the Writing of Fiction (inaugural), 2008

Published works

File:Herman Wouk 2014.jpg

The Man in the Trench Coat (1941, play)
Aurora Dawn (1947){{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/herman-wouk-pulitzer-prize-winning-master-of-sweeping-historical-fiction-dies-a-103/2019/05/17/3eefd034-78be-11e9-b3f5-5673edf2d127_story.html|title=Herman Wouk, Pulitzer Prize-winning master of sweeping historical fiction, dies at 103|first=Becky|last=Krystal|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=May 17, 2019|access-date=May 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518141344/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/herman-wouk-pulitzer-prize-winning-master-of-sweeping-historical-fiction-dies-a-103/2019/05/17/3eefd034-78be-11e9-b3f5-5673edf2d127_story.html|archive-date=May 18, 2019|url-status=live}}
City Boy: The Adventures of Herbie Bookbinder (1948)
The Traitor (1949 play){{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/herman-wouk-dead-caine-mutiny-winds-war-author-was-103-1089474|title=Herman Wouk, Author of 'The Caine Mutiny' and 'The Winds of War,' Dies at 103|website=The Hollywood Reporter|date=May 17, 2019 |access-date=May 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518085608/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/herman-wouk-dead-caine-mutiny-winds-war-author-was-103-1089474|archive-date=May 18, 2019|url-status=live}}
The Caine Mutiny (1951)

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1953, play)
Marjorie Morningstar (1955)
Slattery's Hurricane (1956)
The "Lomokome" Papers (written in 1949, published in 1956)
Nature's Way (1957, play)
This is My God: The Jewish Way of Life (1959, revised ed. 1973, revised ed. 1988, non-fiction){{cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/herman-wouk-the-legendary-author-who-brought-judaism-into-the-mainstream/|title=Herman Wouk, the legendary author who brought Judaism into the mainstream|first=Rachel|last=Gordan|website=The Times of Israel}}
Youngblood Hawke (1962)
Don't Stop the Carnival (1965)
The Winds of War (1971)
War and Remembrance (1978)
Inside, Outside (1985){{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-herman-wouk-caine-mutiny-pulitzer-dead-20190517-story.html|title=Herman Wouk, revered author of 'The Caine Mutiny' and 'The Winds of War,' dies at 103|first=Claudia|last=Luther|website=Los Angeles Times|date=May 17, 2019 |access-date=May 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518163017/https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-herman-wouk-caine-mutiny-pulitzer-dead-20190517-story.html|archive-date=May 18, 2019|url-status=live}}
The Hope (1993)
The Glory (1994)
The Will to Live On: This is Our Heritage (2000, non-fiction)
A Hole in Texas (2004)
The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion (2010, non-fiction)
The Lawgiver (2012)
Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year Old Author (2015, non-fiction)

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20121104052151/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,893076-1,00.html "Books: The Wouk Mutiny", Time Magazine cover story, September 5, 1955]
[http://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/remarkable_columbians/herman_wouk.html Columbia 250: Herman Wouk]
{{IMDb name|941883}}
[http://www.betweenthecovers.com/private/Catalogs/WoukH.pdf Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052030/http://www.betweenthecovers.com/private/Catalogs/WoukH.pdf |date=March 4, 2016 }}, betweenthecovers.com
[http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/author-herman-wouk/ Interview], CBS News Sunday Morning
{{C-SPAN|37818}}
[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/189188242/herman-wouk Herman Wouk] at Find a Grave
[https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079503 Finding aid to Herman Wouk papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.]
[https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4078684 Finding aid to Nancy Dawson and Herman Wouk Collection, 1952-1965, at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.]