The pair of books established Mr. Wouk’s legacy as a master of historical fiction, in which he blended the narrative power of fiction with great understanding and empathy for the human motivations behind wars and other historical events. The literary essayist Leslie Fiedler once explained Mr. Wouk’s critical reputation by comparing him with Nobel laureate Saul Bellow. The stage version of the courtroom scenes from “The Caine Mutiny,” called “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” proved a Broadway success in the 1950s with Henry Fonda and Lloyd Nolan and remained a staple of community theaters, with productions as far away as China. Mr. Wouk decided at a young age that he wanted to be a writer. In 2012, Mr. Wouk published his last novel, “The Lawgiver,” which revolves around the making of a screenplay about Moses and includes Mr. Wouk himself as a character.

Source: Washington Post May 17, 2019 16:30 UTC