The Caine Mutiny.
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| Bogart and Fred MacMurray. Huh? |
Winds of War.
War and Remembrance.
Youngblood Hawke.
Herman Wouk wrote those, and more. There's more, and more to the ones listed above. The Caine Mutiny and Youngblood Hawke were very successful movies. Winds of War and War and Remembrance were mega blockbuster TV miniseries.
There's another book Wouk published in 2015. It is titled Sailor and Fiddler : Reflection of a 100-Year Old Author.
Herman Wouk, born 1915, is still writing. Amazing. Sailor and Fiddler is a breezy autobiography. If you've followed his books a bit, you may find it entertaining. If you haven't, it's probably not going to get you too excited. The fact that Wouk pumped out a pretty good book at 100 years of age, that is simply remarkable.
He tells of meetings and conversations with characters who were huge celebrities in their day, and occasionally discloses that he's a little fuzzy on the details, dismissing the gaffe in one instance with the comment "...forgive me, the conversation took place 62 years ago..."
The reason that I've shared this bit of mildly entertaining information with you today is words. Herman Wouk is arguably the greatest American novelist ever. Herman Wouk knows lotsa words. Lotta lotta words. I know lotsa words. Herman knows more. In the first 2/3 of the book, I have jotted down 21 words that he dropped in here and there that I had to go look up. Some were vaguely familiar, most could be inferred from context ( you know how we sort of go with it by assuming from the surrounding thought that we know the word and maybe yes and maybe no but it's too much effort to look it up so we plow on through).
Here they are. There are 21 of them. How many did you know before today?
Colliery a coal mining facility
Precis a summary of a speech or text
Piquant spicy, tangy (this one I knew, sort of)
Freebooter pirate (yar! I love saying yar!)
Cormorant (adj.) not the bird, as adj it means greedy
Dactyl not terra, it is an accented syllable followed by two
unaccented, eg "flattery"
Persiflage good natured banter
Badinage the same as persiflage. Howbowdah?
Ephemera something short lived, like your enjoyment of this
Pastiche this is cool : a dramatic opening in music or literature
that mimics other works
Evanesce disappear like vapor. whoosh!
Anodyne a pain reliever
Encomium a tribute or testimonial
Limn to describe or portray
Cerberus Best One!!! this is the multi-headed monster dog that
guards the gates of hell -- to prevent escape!!!
Vagary unexpected change
Jejeune Frasier always used this one. It's naïve or simplistic
Litvak a Lithuanian Jew
Adduce cite as evidence
Insouciance indifference
Jocose playful, humorous
So, how many did you know?
