Book Review: Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author by Herman Wouk

Refuel with a Writer’s Unforgettable Career and Life in the Arts

This book—published in 2016 with a tantalizing title—gathers stories about authorship. They’re by and about Herman Wouk. If you don’t know who he is, you should. Wouk wrote Marjorie Morningstar, The Winds of War, War and Remembrance, Inside, Outside and The Caine Mutiny. He lost a child. He wrote for radio. He wrote for Broadway. He earned a large sum of money. He wrote about crisis and he made an impact. Wouk met, married and loved the same woman for a long time.

That he was still writing about writing and life at 100 years old merits notice and praise, not merely because he’s famous. There’s value in knowing what moved Wouk to write his greatest novels and stories. Especially for the artist. Among his short, candid tales in this short, candid mini-memoir are Wouk’s thoughts on working with radio legend Fred Allen, who advised the young writer to “hold the audience”. He writes about collaborating with Kurt Weill when Weill suddenly died at the age of 50. Wouk recounts when Marjorie Mo…