20 Facts About Herman Wouk

Herman Wouk published fifteen novels, many of them historical fiction such as The Caine Mutiny, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.

Herman Wouk was born in the Bronx, New York, the second of three children born to Esther and Abraham Isaac Herman Wouk, Russian Jewish immigrants from what is today Belarus.

Herman Wouk's father toiled for many years to raise the family out of poverty before opening a successful laundry service.

When Herman 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.

Herman Wouk said later that his grandfather and the United States Navy were the two most important influences on his life.

Herman Wouk served as editor of the university's humor magazine, Jester, and wrote two of its annual Varsity Shows.

Herman Wouk became a radio dramatist, working in David Freedman's "Joke Factory" and later with Fred Allen for five years and then, in 1941, for the United States government, writing radio spots to sell war bonds.

Herman Wouk participated in around six invasions and won a number of battle stars.

Herman Wouk was in the New Georgia Campaign, the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, and the Battle of Okinawa.

Herman Wouk sent a copy of the opening chapters to philosophy professor Irwin Edman, under whom he studied at Columbia, who quoted a few pages verbatim to a New York editor.

Herman Wouk claimed it was largely ignored amid the excitement over Norman Mailer's bestselling World War II novel The Naked and the Dead.

Herman Wouk devoted "thirteen years of extraordinary research and long, arduous composition" to these two novels, noted Arnold Beichman.

In 1995, Herman Wouk was honored on his 80th birthday by the Library of Congress with a symposium on his career.

The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion was an exploration of the tension between religion and science which originated in a discussion Herman Wouk had with theoretical physicist Richard Feynman.

Herman Wouk's memoir, titled Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author, was published in January 2016 to mark his 100th birthday.

Herman 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.

In 1944 Herman 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.

Herman Wouk's 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.

Herman Wouk's nephew, Alan I Green, was a psychiatrist at Dartmouth College.

Herman 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.