Wouk to give Michelin Lecture

Herman Wouk, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Caine Mutiny and other novels, will deliver Caltech’s 2004 Michelin Distinguished Lecture on Tuesday, February 3. “A Random Walk Through My Literary Life,” an interview of Wouk by historian and California state librarian Kevin Starr, will begin at 8 p.m. in Beckman Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Born in 1915 in New York into a family of Russian Jewish immigrants, Wouk graduated from Columbia University, and worked for a time as a highly paid radio scriptwriter. As a commissioned Navy officer in the Pacific during World War II, he began writing novels to relieve the monotony. His first, a satire of radio titled Aurora Dawn (1946), was followed by the autobiographical novel City Boy, and Slattery’s Hurricane, about Navy weather pilots, which was made into a 1949 movie starring Richard Widmark.

Inspired by his war experiences, Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny (1951) earned him the 1952 Pulitzer Prize in fiction, became one of the best-selling novels of the century, and was turned into a hit movie with Humphrey Bogart. Even its popularity, however, was surpassed by that of his next novel, Marjorie Morningstar (1955), about a young Jewish-American woman and her faith. The book sold millions, and its film version, featuring Natalie Wood and Gene Kelly, also was a success. Over the next three decades, Wouk continued to write best-sellers, and in the 1980s, his two-volume historical novel, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, was made into an acclaimed television miniseries. His books remain popular to this day.

A much-published author in his own right, Starr holds an MA and a PhD in American literature from Harvard and a master of library science from UC Berkeley, and is University Professor in the history department at USC.

No tickets or reservations are required for this event. For more information, contact Public Events at 1 (888) 2CALTECH, (626) 395-4652, or events@caltech.edu, or visit www.events.caltech.edu. Individuals with a disability can call 395-4688 (voice) or 395-3700 (TDD).

The goal of the Michelin Distinguished Visitor Lecture Series—established in 1992 by designer Bonnie Cashin in memory of her uncle, James Michelin—is to promote creative interaction between the arts and sciences. Previous lecturers include artist David Hockney, playwright Tom Stoppard, architect Frank Gehry, director Oliver Stone, opera singer Beverly Sills, and author Michael Crichton.
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