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Contact Info
Home Town New York
Last Address 323 W Overlook Rd Palm Springs, CA 92264
Date of Passing May 17, 2019
Location of Interment Beth David Cemetery - Elmont, New York
In his Oscar-nominated role in "The Caine Mutiny" (1954), Humphrey Bogart made us believe he was crazy. His Captain Queeg is the skipper of a World War II minesweeper - and a study in paranoia:
Of course it's only a movie, but you may not know that it's drawn from real life.
The man who wrote "The Caine Mutiny," Herman Wouk, was once a naval officer himself. And he served for two years aboard a minesweeper called the Zane.
Now, at a rather reclusive 102 years old, he agreed to discuss it.
"People who read 'The Caine Mutiny' today might be surprised that it's actually based on truth," said Smith. "And was there a Captain Queeg?"
"Yes, there was a Captain Queeg," replied Wouk. "More than one actually. But he was unique in his way. He wasn't Humphrey Bogart. But he was a work of imagination drawn out of a real experience."
Talk about real experience: Wouk is a giant of American literature. "The Caine Mutiny" was only his first big success.
Wouk grew up in the Bronx, and after graduating Columbia University, found work writing for comedian Fred Allen's radio show.
"Did you at some point say, 'Okay, I need to stop writing comedy, and I need to do something more serious'?" Smith asked.
"Not in quite that way. But I was very tired of the joke writing. I felt there was more to do, but I really didn't know what to do beside that."
He wound up joining the Navy at the start of World War II. For gagwriter Wouk, it was a game-changer.
"I found my feet as a writer in the Navy," he said. "I was no longer trying to be funny or anything. I just reported the facts. That's what the Navy gave me. Cheers to the Navy!"
But if Wouk's two years at sea helped make his writing career, it was a night ashore that transformed his life.
He met Sarah at her birthday party, which he crashed.
Herman and Sarah were married in 1945, and in time she became his literary agent.
Smith asked, "What role did Sarah play in your writing?"
"It's just impossible to exaggerate there," Wouk said, pointing to her portrait. "There she sits looking at me, says, 'Don't mention me.' She says, 'You know, it's not important.'"
"But she was important?"
"Oh, she was the key!"
In 1951, with her encouragement, he published "The Caine Mutiny." It won him a Pulitzer Prize, and helped make him a celebrity.
But for all of its success, Wouk says "The Caine Mutiny" was only a start.
Smith asked, "Was there a moment when you knew, Wow, this is big?"
"Now without sounding conceited, I never thought of it as my big, big book," Wouk replied. "I knew that there was much more to do. I really did."
In Wouk's mind, the World War II books and movies up to that time were missing something -- so he started what he called "the main task."
Which was? "To, so far as I could, fix down in literature what happened in World War II and the Holocaust. That was my main task."
The result was a pair of novels for the ages: the first, "The Winds of War," published in 1971, set on the eve of World War II.
"Did it meet your expectations?" Smith asked.
"Yes. It could have been better, deeper. But it told a story."
The book was a big bestseller, and, you may recall, it became a very big TV mini-series.
Seven years later, he finished the story with "War and Remembrance." The made-for-TV movie that followed broke new ground for prime time TV. The death camp scenes were actually filmed at Auschwitz, with no horrific detail spared.
"I was never interested in writing a history; I wanted to write a book about the war," Wouk said.
"But at the same time, you're teaching people history."
"Doggone right I am! That's the main task."
The Wouks moved to Palm Springs in the California desert in 1990: The boy from New York City said it was his wife's idea, but added, "I love it here."
Sarah passed away in 2011, but she's still an important presence in his life.
"She believed in you," said Smith.
"Yes. More than that; she believed in me more than I did in myself at the time!"
"But you didn't want to get married at first? She had to kind of convince you?"
"I'll say no more about Sarah," said Wouk.
"No more?"
"No more."
He says his latest book, "Sailor and Fiddler" (Simon & Schuster), a glance back at a remarkable life, will be his last.
Herman Wouk is a genius at telling stories; he just doesn't seem to care much for sharing his own.
Smith said, "I have a feeling you're not going to answer, but I'll ask you anyway: Have you stopped writing?"
"Have I stopped writing? Well, I always keep my diary."
"And beyond that?"
"Beyond that, go find yourself another interview!" Wouk laughed.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/New Georgia Campaign (1943)
From Month/Year
June / 1943
To Month/Year
October / 1943
Description This operation was fought during the Pacific war on this group of islands situated in the central Solomons. US forces invaded them as part of an American offensive (CARTWHEEL) to isolate and neutralize Rabaul, the main Japanese base in their South-East Area.
On 20 June 1943 a Raider battalion (, 5(f)) landed at Segi Point on the main island, New Georgia, and during the next two weeks there were other landings by US Marines and 43rd US Division on Rendova and Vangunu islands, and on western New Georgia, to seize a Japanese airstrip at Munda point. Despite the US Navy's intervention, which resulted in the battles of Kula Gulf and Kolombangara, 4,000 reinforcements were successfully dispatched to the commander of the 10,500-strong Japanese garrison, Maj-General Sasaki Noboru. Most reinforced Munda, which became the focus of Japanese resistance, and their night infiltration tactics unnerved the inexperienced US troops. Non-battle casualties, caused by exhaustion and ‘war neuroses’, increased alarmingly, and when the commander of 14th Corps, Maj-General Oscar Griswold, arrived on 11 July he reported the division was ‘about to fold up’. The 37th US Division was brought in, Griswold replaced the worst affected units, and he then launched a corps attack on 25 July. Fierce fighting followed but by 1August the Japanese, outnumbered and outgunned, had withdrawn inland. This time US Navy destroyers prevented more reinforcements reaching them when, on the night of 6/7August, they sank three Japanese transports (battle of Vella Gulf).
Munda now became the base of Marine Corps squadrons which supported landings on Vella Lavella on 15 August. These bypassed and isolated Sasaki's garrison now gathering on Kolombangara after further US reinforcements, elements of 25th US Division, had failed to destroy them on New Georgia. On 15 September Sasaki was ordered to withdraw. In a brilliantly organized evacuation 9,400 men out of the 12,500 on Kolombangara were rescued by landing craft, and the following month those on Vella Lavella were also evacuated.
The campaign proved costly for the Americans who had 1,094 killed and 3,873 wounded with thousands more becoming non-battle casualties. Excluding the fighting on Vella Lavella, 2,483 Japanese bodies were counted. Planned as a one-division operation, the Japanese garrison's ‘skill, tenacity, and valor’—to quote the campaign's official US historian—eventually made it one where elements of four had to be used. ‘The obstinate General Sasaki,’ the same historian concludes, ‘deserved his country's gratitude for his gallant and able conduct.’
