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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/Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign (1944)
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
November / 1944
Description The Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, also known as Operation Forager, was an offensive launched by United States forces against Imperial Japanese forces in the Mariana Islands and Palau in the Pacific Ocean between June and November, 1944 during the Pacific War. The United States offensive, under the overall command of Chester Nimitz, followed the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign and was intended to neutralize Japanese bases in the central Pacific, support the Allied drive to retake the Philippines, and provide bases for a strategic bombing campaign against Japan.
Beginning the offensive, United States Marine Corps and United States Army forces, with support from the United States Navy, executed landings on Saipan in June, 1944. In response, the Imperial Japanese Navy's combined fleet sortied to attack the U.S. Navy fleet supporting the landings. In the resulting aircraft carrier Battle of the Philippine Sea (the so-called “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”) on 19–20 June, the Japanese naval forces were decisively defeated with heavy and irreplaceable losses to their carrier-borne and land-based aircraft.
Thereafter, U.S. forces executed landings on Guam and Tinian in July, 1944. After heavy fighting, Saipan was secured in July and Guam and Tinian in August, 1944. The U.S. then constructed airfields on Saipan and Tinian where B-29s were based to conduct strategic bombing missions against the Japanese mainland until the end of World War II, including the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In the meantime, in order to secure the flank for U.S. forces preparing to attack Japanese forces in the Philippines, in September, 1944, U.S. Marine and Army forces landed on the islands of Peleliu and Angaur in Palau. After heavy and intense combat on Peleliu, the island was finally secured by U.S. forces in November, 1944.
Following their landings in the Mariana and Palau Islands, Allied forces continued their ultimately successful campaign against Japan by landing in the Philippines in October, 1944 and the Volcano and Ryukyu Islands beginning in January, 1945.
