The Winds of War author Herman Wouk dies at 103
Author Herman Wouk, whose World War II experiences provided the foundation of his bestseller The Caine Mutiny and two epic novels about the war, died yesterday at the age of 103, his literary agent said.
Wouk, whose War and Remembrance and The Winds of War were turned into popular television miniseries in the 1980s, died in his sleep at his home in Palm Springs, California, Amy Rennert said.
He died 10 days before what would have been his 104th birthday, Rennert said.
Wouk was 100 years old when his final book Sailor and Fiddler, a memoir about his career as a writer and his Jewish faith, was published in December 2015.
He continued to write, even after stating that Sailor and Fiddler would be his last book, and was working on his next book up until a month ago, Rennert said.
Some critics dismissed Wouk as a
middlebrow writer but his books – many of them bestsellers with a focus on moral dilemmas – showed a broad range.
In addition to his war tales, Wouk’s books included a comic novel (Don’t Stop the Carnival), a “Jewish-American princess” novel (Marjorie Morningstar), a novel about the publishing business (Youngblood Hawke) and theological musings as an Orthodox Jew (This Is My God, The Will to Live On).
“If they’re reading, then I’ve done what I set out to do,” Wouk said of his audience in a 2000 Washington Post interview. “And so far, so good.”
Born in New York to Russian-Jewish immigrants, Wouk grew up in the New York borough of the Bronx and graduated at 19 from Columbia University.
A stint as a joke writer for radio comedian Fred Allen was followed by war-time service in the South Pacific as an officer aboard destroyer-minesweepers.
Wouk and wife Sarah, who worked as his agent, were married for 66 years until her 2011 death.
They had three sons, one of whom died in childhood.