Publication Order of The Henry Family Books
| The Winds of War | 1971 |
| War and Remembrance | 1978 |
Publication Order of The Hope and the Glory Books
| The Hope | 1993 |
| The Glory | 1994 |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| Aurora Dawn | 1947 |
| City Boy: The Adventures of Herbie Bookbinder | 1948 |
| The Caine Mutiny | 1951 |
| Marjorie Morningstar | 1955 |
| Slattery’s Hurricane | 1956 |
| The “Lomokome” Papers | 1956 |
| Youngblood Hawke | 1962 |
| Don’t Stop the Carnival | 1965 |
| Inside, Outside | 1985 |
| A Hole in Texas | 2004 |
| The Lawgiver | 2012 |
Publication Order of Plays
| The Traitor | 1949 |
| The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial | 1953 |
| Nature’s Way | 1957 |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
| This Is My God: The Jewish Way of Life | 1959 |
| The Will to Live On: This Is Our Heritage | 2000 |
| The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion | 2010 |
| Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author | 2015 |
About Herman Wouk
Herman Wouk (1915 to 2019) was an American novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1952 for “The Caine Mutiny”. He published 15 novels, many of them historical fiction, including the Second World War epics “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance”, and his books have been translated into 27 languages.
Wouk was born in the Bronx, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants from what is now Belarus. His father ran a laundry business, and his maternal grandfather, a rabbi from Minsk, took charge of his Jewish education from the age of 13. He graduated from Columbia University in 1934, where he edited the humour magazine Jester, then worked as a radio writer, including five years with the comedian Fred Allen.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor he joined the US Naval Reserve and served in the Pacific aboard two destroyer minesweepers, the USS Zane and the USS Southard, rising to executive officer of the Southard. He began his first novel, “Aurora Dawn”, in off-duty hours on board, and it was published in 1947. He later said that his grandfather and the Navy were the two most important influences on his life.
“The Caine Mutiny” (1951) grew out of that wartime service. The mutiny takes place during a typhoon in December 1944, and the court-martial that follows is the climax of the book. Wouk adapted it for Broadway as “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial”, and the 1954 film starred Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg. “Marjorie Morningstar” (1955) put him on the cover of Time and was filmed with Natalie Wood and Gene Kelly. “Youngblood Hawke” (1962) also reached the screen, and “Don’t Stop the Carnival” (1965) became a Jimmy Buffett musical in 1997.
“The Winds of War” (1971) and “War and Remembrance” (1978) follow the naval officer Victor “Pug” Henry and his family through the war. Wouk spent thirteen years on the pair, and both became television miniseries starring Robert Mitchum, in 1983 and 1988. “The Hope” (1993) and “The Glory” (1994) cover the first 33 years of Israel’s history. He also wrote non-fiction about Judaism, beginning with “This Is My God” in 1959.
In 2008 he received the first Library of Congress Lifetime Achievement Award for the Writing of Fiction. His last novel, “The Lawgiver”, appeared in 2012, and his memoir “Sailor and Fiddler” marked his 100th birthday. Wouk died at his home in Palm Springs, California, on 17 May 2019, ten days before he would have turned 104.
Photo: BSWLA, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).