I waited. My email pinged. I opened the link. Whaaaatttt? I said.
Because, as it turns out, ninety-six-year-old Herman Wouk, who won the Pulitzer Prize for The Caine Mutiny, has a new novel due out from Jonathan Karp at Simon & Schuster, a novel with Moses at its heart. Mr. Karp and Mr. Wouk are, says Amy, no accidental pairing; in fact, Mr. Karp wrote his master's thesis on Wouk when in graduate school at New York University.
But neither are Amy and Mr. Wouk an accidental pairing. I asked Amy for some behind-the-scenes insights. This is what she said:
The new novel is outstanding. HW has long wanted to write a novel about Moses and in The Lawgiver he approaches the subject with great warmth, wisdom and imagination. It's a tour de force. Some of his earlier novels have long been favorites of mine—including City Boy, The Caine Mutiny (my father introduced me to it and I still have his original hardcover copy from 1951, the year it was published!) and Marjorie Morningstar—and getting to know Herman Wouk and work with him closely has been a great privilege and pleasure.Impressed? I am.
5 Comments on At 96 years old, Herman Wouk sells a new novel, in a project spearheaded by my agent, last added: 4/10/2012
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Please let this be me in 73 years. That is all.
Sarah Allen
(my creative writing blog)
I love this, Beth. I always feel so old when people ask if Ghost is my first novel. I was 52 when I got the deal and 53 when Ghost was published. This gives me tons of hope I will be writing until I can't write no more ;). Thanks.
YES!
My first adult novel was Wouk's Marjorie Morningstar...the first adult novel my mother read. I love that he's still writing!
Gosh, I didn't even know he was still around... Hope I can read, let alone write, at that age.
How wonderful for him -- and for us! It sounds fantastic.
Wow, amazing to be publishing a new book at that age...shows that imagination never dies