Martin Russ

Russ was born on February 14, 1931 in Newark, New Jersey. His parents were professional writers. He attended a private high school, South Kent School, and studied at St. Lawrence University. In his junior year he set aside university studies and enlisted in the US Marine Corps during the Korean War.{{cite news |last1=Hevesi |first1=Dennis |title=Martin Russ, a Marine Who Wrote About Combat, Dies at 79 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/world/10russ.html?searchResultPosition=10 |access-date=31 January 2025 |publisher=New York Times |date=December 9, 2010}} Originally trained as a small arms repair technician, Russ requested and eventually received a transfer to a combat infantry unit.The Last Parallel, Signet Books paperback edition January 1958, rear cover.

After the Korean conflict he returned to civilian life and enrolled in the University of California - Berkeley.{{cite web |title=Breakout By Martin Russ |url=https://www.bookey.app/book/breakout-by-martin-russ |website=BooKey.app |access-date=1 February 2025}} Eventually he became an associate professor of writing at what is now Carnegie-Mellon University. He died on December 6, 2010 in Oakville, California.

His first book, The Last Parallel, was a first-hand account (with changed names) of his service in the 1st Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division during the Korean War.{{cite web |last1=Hevesi |first1=Dennis |title=Martin Russ, a Marine Who Wrote About Combat, Dies at 79 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/world/10russ.html?searchResultPosition=10 |website=The New York Times |access-date=1 February 2025}} In his later work he returned to non-fiction military subjects with books dealing with World War II, Korea and the Vietnam war. Russ also published two novels and a memoir about the teaching profession.

The Last Parallel was a New York Times bestseller and a Book of the Month Club selection.{{cite news|author=Dennis Hevesi|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/world/10russ.html|title=Martin Russ, a Marine Who Wrote About Combat, Dies at 79|work=The New York Times|date=December 9, 2010}} J. D. Salinger called it “a very legitimate, sinewy, authentic war book”;Fromm International edition, 1999, rear cover The New York Herald Tribune called it “Top rank among soldiers’ war records of all time.” Kirkus Reviews opined that Russ was "a hugely gifted young writer", while noting that he was "in his jagged, haphazard way, wonderfully assassinating the King's English by any verbal somersaults he fancies."{{cite web |title=The Last Parallel by Martin Russ |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/martin-russ-2/the-last-parallel/ |website=Kirkus Reviews |access-date=1 February 2025}}

It was later optioned, but not produced, by film director Stanley Kubrick.{{cite web|url=http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/faq/index2.html|title=The Kubrick FAQ|author=Mark Ervin|accessdate=November 28, 2019|display-authors=etal}}

Of Russ' second book, Half Moon Haven, the New York Times commented: "With this book, Mr Russ proves himself a gifted novelist" and praised him as an "original and sensitive talent."{{cite news |last1=Crane |first1=Milton |title=Inmates Enjoyed Being Bopped; Half Moon Haven by Martin Russ |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/09/27/91423254.html?pageNumber=179 |access-date=1 February 2025 |publisher=New York Times Book Review |date=September 27, 1959}}

Breakout, which documented the Chosin River campaign of the Korean War, was described as an "outstanding history",{{cite book |last1=Russ |first1=Martin |title=Breakout: The Chosen Reservoir Campaign |date=1999 |publisher=Fromm International|location=back cover comment attributed to Library Journal}} "thoroughly researched"{{cite journal |last1=Check |first1=Christopher |title=Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950 |journal=The American Enterprise |date=Jan 2000 |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=62 |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA58576801&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=10473572&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7Ea7f2459a&aty=open-web-entry |access-date=1 February 2025}} and "engrossing."{{cite news |last1=Spector |first1=Robert H. |title=Exit Strategy |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/18/reviews/990718.18spectot.html |access-date=1 February 2025 |publisher=New York Times |date=July 18, 1999}}

Written during the Vietnam War, Happy Hunting Ground included an account, told to Russ by a third party, of Australian soldiers threatening a Vietnamese woman with torture. Controversy ensued when it was claimed that the torture did not take place. Russ stated that he reported what he had been told by others and hadn't been present at the actual event.{{cite news |title=SoldierBreaks Silence on Torture |publisher=Courier-Mail (Brisbane) |date=April 17, 2010}}{{cite web |title=Water torture of Vietnamese DPR/TV/798 |url=https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C256187 |publisher=Australian War Memorial, Canberra AU}}

Kirkus Reviews praised Showdown Semester for its "very sound and mostly amusing teaching tips" and found it "certainly worth a browse by anyone involved in this daunting profession."{{cite web |title=SHOWDOWN SEMESTER: Advice from a Writing Professor by Martin Russ |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/martin-russ-2/showdown-semester-advice-from-a-writing-profess/ |website=Kirkus Reviews |access-date=1 February 2025}}

Fiction

• Half Moon Haven (1959)
• War Memorial (1967)

Non-fiction

• Happy Hunting Ground (1968)
• Line of Departure: Tarawa. Doubleday (1975). {{ISBN|978-0385096690}}
• Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950. Penguin Books (2000). {{ISBN|978-0140292596}}

Memoirs

• The Last Parallel (1956) {{ISBN|978-0837167701}}{{cite web |last1=Kirkus Reviews op cit}}
• ''Showdown Semester: Advice from a Writing Professor" (1980) Crown Publishers, 1988 {{ISBN|978-0517542132}}

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Category:1931 births

Category:2010 deaths

Category:United States Marines

Category:American military writers

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