May 12, 1994

Contact: Craig D'Ooge (202) 707-9189
Public contact: (202) 707-6590

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Herman Wouk To Lecture June 2

Author Herman Wouk will deliver a lecture in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday, June 2, at 7 p.m. in the Mumford Room, sixth floor, Madison Building. No tickets are required. Mr. Wouk will speak about World War II and the process of transforming novels into movies. Clips from the television series "War and Remembrance," based on his novel, will be shown.

Among living American writers, Herman Wouk is one of the most read around the world, almost as popular in translation as he is in his native land. In recent years, he has been publishing books every six or seven years. His most recent work is The Hope, his first publication since 1985. While earlier novels such as "The Caine Mutiny" and "Marjorie Morningstar" have become classics, Wouk is perhaps best known today for his linked monumental war books, "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance," an epic narrative of World War II, interweaving history with the experiences of two fictional families plunged into the perils and tragedies of the war and the Holocaust.

Wouk was born on May 27, 1915, to Russian-Jewish parents who had emigrated from Minsk. He attended public schools in the Bronx and was graduated from Columbia University. He edited the undergraduate humor magazine Jester and wrote varsity musicals, obtaining his B.A. degree at the age of 19, in 1934. From 1936 to 1941, he was a staff writer for radio comedian Fred Allen. In December 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he joined the Navy. In 1949, Wouk started writing The Caine Mutiny while on board the aircraft carrier Saipan. The book was later made into the celebrated film starring Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg.

Since 1964, Wouk and his wife, Betty Sarah, have lived in Washington, D.C. so the author could be close to the Library of Congress and other important research centers. He remains a very private person. In the past 14 years he has talked to an interviewer once--for the Time cover story on the television serial "The Winds of War." The Wouks have two sons, Nathaniel and Joseph, both of whom are married and live in Southern California.

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PR 94-095
5/12/94
ISSN 0731-3527