Herman Wouk

Full Length, Drama

Characters:19 male (6 non-speaking)

Simple set

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a court martial has been adapted by the author into suspenseful evening of theatre. A young lieutenant is relieved his captain of command in the midst of a typhoon on the grounds that the captain, Queeg is a psychopath in crisis and commanded the ship and its crew to destruction. Naval tradition is against him, but testimony eventually reveals a devastating picture of Queeg's mental disintegration.

"Enormously exciting. It is the modern stage at its best." -N.Y. Daily News

Aspiring writer Arthur Youngblood Hawke moves from Hovey, Kentucky, to New York City with nothing but a manuscript and a dream: to make it as a novelist. When, impossibly, his manuscript is sold - and becomes an overnight success - Hawke finds himself instantly famous and wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. He gives himself over to the high life, enjoying everything fame, fortune and New York City can offer. But Hawke, like so many dreamers before him, will discover that fame and fortune are dangerous friends.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a perennial favorite of readers young and old, Herman Wouk's masterful World War II drama set aboard a U.S. Navy warship in the Pacific is a novel of brilliant virtuosity (Times Literary Supplement). Herman Wouk's boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining novel of life--and mutiny--on a Navy warship in the Pacific theater was immediately embraced, upon its original publication in 1951, as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple with the moral complexities and the human consequences of World War II. In the intervening half century, The Caine Mutiny has sold millions of copies throughout the world, and has achieved the status of a modern classic.

A "truly enjoyable" journey through one man's Jewish American experience by the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Marjorie Morningstar (Newsday). Herman Wouk's classic novel moves on from the grand themes which have won him international acclaim - war, the fate of nations, and the indomitable spirit of man - to the quest for identity, in the clash between the Inside of faith and family and the Outside of the glittery American dream. Inside, Outside sweeps through more than sixty years, from the pre-war, pre-atomic innocence of the twenties and thirties to the turbulent immediate past. Scenes of rollicking family humour and show-business comedy alternate with sudden tragedy, the spectacle of a falling President and the explosion of war. A bittersweet first love, relived after forty years, and a tense secret wartime mission between Washington and Jerusalem call forth the author's renowned storytelling gift. An intense, personal book about intimate things, Inside, Outside is a merry, poignant, sometimes ribald picture of the American Jewish experience, by a master at the peak of his powers. "Extremely funny." - The Wall Street Journal "A social comedy of Jewish-American life reaching from New York to Jerusalem and spanning much of the 20th century" - Publishers Weekly "Wouk reaffirms his position as one of the nation's eminent storytellers." - Newsday "Wouk`s most significant work since The Caine Mutiny." - Chicago Tribune "Generously stuffed with zestfully old-fashioned humor and sentiment." - Kirkus Reviews

Herman Wouk has ranged in his novels from the mighty narrative of The Caine Mutiny and the warm, intimate humor of Marjorie Morningstar to the global panorama of The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. All these powers merge in this major new work of nonfiction, The Will to Live On, an illuminating account of the worldwide revolution that has been sweeping over Jewry, set against a swiftly reviewed background of history, tradition, and sacred literature.

Forty years ago, in his modern classic This Is My God, Herman Wouk stated the case for his religious beliefs and conduct. His aim in that work and in The Will to Live On has been to break through the crust of prejudice, to reawaken clearheaded thought about the magnificent Jewish patrimony, and to convey a message of hope for Jewish survival.

Although the Torah and the Talmud are timeless, the twentieth century has brought earthquake shocks to the Jews: the apocalyptic experience of the Holocaust, the reborn Jewish state, the precarious American diaspora, and deepening religious schisms. After a lifetime of study, Herman Wouk examines the changes affecting the Jewish world, especially the troubled wonder of Israel, and the remarkable, though dwindling, American Jewry. The book is peppered with wonderful stories of the author's encounters with such luminaries as Ben Gurion, Isidor Rabi, Yitzhak Rabin, Saul Bellow, and Richard Feynan.

Learned in general culture, warmly tolerant of other beliefs, this noted author expresses his own other beliefs, this noted author expresses his own faith with a passion that gives the book its fire and does so in the clear, engaging style tha-as in all Wouk's fiction -- makes the reader want to know what the next page will bring.

Herman Wouk writes, in The Will to Live On:

"And so the Melting Pot is beginning to work on Jewry. Its effect was deferred in the passing century by the shock of the Holocaust and the rise of Israel, but today the Holocaust is an academic subject, and Israel is no longer a beleaguered underdog. Amkha in America is not dying, it is slowly melting, and those are very different fates. Dying is a terror, an agony, a strangling finish, to be fought off by sheer instinct, by the will to live on, to the last breath. Melting is a mere diffusion into an ambient welcoming warmth in which one is dissolved and disappears, as a teaspoon of sugar vanishes into hot tea....

Yet here in the United States, for all the scary attrition I have pictured, we are still a community of over five million strong....At a far stretch of my hopes, our descendants could one day be a diaspora comparable to Babylonia. At the moment, of course, that is beyond rational expectation. We have to concentrate on lasting at all...."

It's everyone's dream: to leave behind the rat-race of the working world and start life all over again amidst the cool breezes, sun-drenched colours, and rum-laced drinks of a tropical paradise. This is the story of Norman Paperman, a New York City press agent who, facing the onset of middle age, runs away to a Caribbean island to reinvent himself as a hotel keeper. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Herman Wouk, who himself lived on an island in the sun for seven years, draws on his own experiences to tell a story at once brilliantly comic and deeply moving about a man's search for happiness, and for himself.

A starry-eyed young beauty, Marjorie Morgenstern is nineteen years old when she leaves New York to accept the job of her dreams—working in a summer-stock company for Noel Airman, its talented and intensely charismatic director. Released from the social constraints of her traditional Jewish family, and thrown into the glorious, colorful world of theater, Marjorie finds herself entangled in a powerful affair with the man destined to become the greatest—and the most destructive—love of her life.

Rich with humor and poignancy, Marjorie Morningstar is a classic love story, one that spans two continents and two decades in the life of its heroine. An unforgettable tale, this paean to youthful love and the bittersweet sorrow of a first heartbreak endures as one of Herman Wouk's most beloved creations.

A New York Times Bestseller, The Glory is a "sprawling, action-packed novel" of Israel by the author of The Hope (Philadelphia Inquirer). This follow-up to The Hope plunges immediately into the violence and upheaval of the Six-Day War of 1967 - and continues the stories of its multiple characters and of Israel's dramatic struggle for survival across the years. The Glory takes readers through the terrors of the Yom Kippur War, the famous Entebbe rescue, and the airstrikes on Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor - ending with the final hope for peace. Shifting between Jerusalem and Washington, Los Angeles and Paris, this is the story of a beleaguered country and the men and women who fought for Israeli Independence and triumphed in the Six-Day War but know their fragile nationhood still hangs by a thread as their own children go into battle. Illuminating the inner lives of real Israeli leaders-including David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, and Ariel Sharon-the Pulitzer Prize-winning "master of the historical novel" (Los Angeles Times) tells the story of Israel's struggle to exist with a compelling sense of both the broad significance of this time in history, and its personal impact on those who lived through it. "A genuinely enjoyable read." - Detroit News "A top-notch storyteller." - Time

"I read it and I thought, 'Oh, God, this is me.'" - Scarlet Johansson Now hailed as a "proto-feminist classic" (Vulture), Pulitzer Prize winner Herman Wouk's powerful coming-of-age novel about an ambitious young woman pursuing her artistic dreams in New York City has been a perennial favourite since it was first a bestseller in the 1950s. Sixteen-year-old Marjorie Morgenstern lives a quiet life in New York City. Her mother hopes for a glittering marriage to a good man, but Marjorie has other ideas. When she falls desperately in love with Noel Airman, a musician as reckless as he is talented, Marjorie dreams of defying her destiny as a wife and mother to become a star of the stage. Why should she settle with being just another Mrs Morgenstern if she can succeed as Marjorie Morningstar? Rich with humour and poignancy, Marjorie Morningstar is a classic love story, one that spans two continents and two decades in the life of its heroine. "A proto-feminist classic." - Boris Kachka, Vulture "To me, it's a unicorn of a book - a so-called women's novel, written by a man, that takes its heroine very seriously . . . A serious book that finds a big, sprawling story in what seems like a small, narrow life." - Laura Lippman, author of The Lady in the Lake "Very good reading indeed." - Maxwell Geismar, New York Times

IN

For more than 50 years, Herman Wouk has dreamed of writing a novel about the life of Moses Finally, at the age of 96, he has found an ingeniously witty way to tell the tale of The Lawgiver, a romantic and suspenseful epistolary novel about a group of people trying to make a movie about Moses in the present day. At its centre is Margo Solovei, a brilliant young writer-director who has rejected her father's strict Jewish upbringing to pursue a career in the arts. When an Australian multi-billionaire promises to finance a movie about Moses, Margo does everything she can to land the job, including a reunion with her estranged first love, an influential lawyer with whom she has unfinished business.

More years ago than I care to reckon up, I met Richard Feynman. So begins The Language God Talks, Herman Wouk's gem on navigating the divide between science and religion. In one rich, compact volume, Wouk draws on stories from his life as well as on key events from the 20th century to address the eternal questions of why we are here, what purpose faith serves, and how scientific fact fits into the picture. He relates wonderful conversations he's had with scientists such as Feynman, Murray Gell-Mann, Freeman Dyson, and Steven Weinberg, and brings to life such pivotal moments as the 1969 moon landing and the Challenger disaster. Brilliantly written, The Language God Talks is a scintillating and lively investigation and a worthy addition to the literature.

Jimmy Buffett landed in my Palm Springs retreat like a long-haired Peter Pan in denim. 'Jimmy,' he said with a beguiling smile, sticking out a hand. I have never met anybody more likable at first glance. He had come to obtain the rights for a musical based on Don't Stop the Carnival, and we sat out under a tree in my garden to discuss his idea. Soon we were deep into the creative problems, and by the time my wife called us in for a brunch of bagels and lox, a musical show by a very odd couple, Herman Wouk and Jimmy Buffett, had been conceived....

Look for Jimmy Buffett's recording of the Don't Stop the Carnival musical.

Physicist Guy Carpenter finds his peaceful life with a prestigious career at NASA, devoted wife, and new baby turned upside down by a Chinese scientific discovery, a study that could have been based on an old American scientific project, the Superconducting Super Collider, that raises serious questions about possible military implications, an old l

Like no other novelist at work today, Herman Wouk has managed to capture the sweep of history in novels rich in character and alive with drama. The Glory reprises the story of Israel's early years that culminated in the miraculous triumph of 1967's Six-Day War in The Hope. As Wouk here portrays the young nation facing formidable new challenges and pushed once again to the brink of annihilation, he sets the stage for today's ongoing pursuit of peace.

A magnificent saga-encompassing two novels, The Hope and The Glory—that brings brilliantly to life the epic adventure of Israel's founding and struggle to survive.

Taking us from the Sinai to Jerusalem, from dust-choking battles to the Entebbe raid, from Camp David to the inner lives of such historical figures as Golda Meir, Moshe Dyan, and Anwar Sadat, these extraordinary novels have the authenticity and authority of Wouk's finest fiction—and together strike a resounding chord of hope for all humanity.

Like no other novelist at work today, Herman Wouk has managed to capture the sweep of history in novels rich in character and alive with drama. In The Hope, which opens in 1948 and culminates in the miraculous triumph of 1967's Six-Day War, Wouk plunges the reader into the story of a nation's difficult birth and embattled infancy. When the tale resumes in The Glory, Wouk portrays the young nation once again pushed to the brink of annihilation—and sets the stage for today's ongoing pursuit of peace.

A magnificent saga—encompassing two novels, The Hope and The Glory—that brings brilliantly to life the epic adventure of Israel's founding and struggle to survive.

Taking us from the Sinai to Jerusalem, from dust-choking battles to the Entebbe raid, from Camp David to the inner lives of such historical figures as Golda Meir, Moshe Dyan, and Anwar Sadat, these extraordinary novels have the authenticity and authority of Wouk's finest fiction—and together strike a resounding chord of hope for all humanity.

In The Hope, world-famed historical novelist Herman Wouk told the riveting saga of the first twenty years of Israel's existence, culminating in its resounding triumph in the Six-Day War, which amazed the world as few events of this turbulent century have. With The Glory, Wouk rejoins the story of Israel's epic journey in one of his most compelling works yet. From the euphoric aftermath of that stunning victory in 1967, through the harrowing battles of the Yom Kippur War, the heroic Entebbe rescue, the historic Camp David Accords, and finally the celebration of forty years of independence and the opening of the road to peace, Wouk immerses us in the bloody battles, the devastating defeats, the elusive victories.

An enormously entertaining portrait of a Bronx Tom Sawyer (San Francisco Chronicle), City Boy is a sharp and moving novel of boyhood from Pulitzer Prize winner Herman Wouk. A hilarious and often touching tale of an urban kid's adventures and misadventures on the street, in school, in the countryside, always in pursuit of Lucille, a heartless redhead personifying all the girls who torment and fascinate pubescent lads of eleven.

The publication of 'Aurora Dawn' in 1947 immediately established Herman Wouk as a novelist of exceptional literary and historical significance. Today, Aurora Dawn's themes have grown still more relevant and, in the manner of all great fiction, its characters and ironies have only been sharpened by the passage of time. Wouk's raucous satire of Manhattan's high-power elite recounts the adventures of one Andrew Reale as he struggles toward fame and fortune in the early days of radio. On the quest for wealth and prestige, ambitious young Andrew finds himself face-to-face with his own devil's bargain: forced to choose between soul and salary, true love and a strategic romance, Wouk's riotous, endearing hero learns a timeless lesson about the high cost of success in America's most extravagant metropolis.