C.S. Forester (1899-1966)[1] was rejected when he volunteered for military service during the First World War.[2] He tried med school, but left without the MD. He tried writing. This time he got what he wanted. Forester discovered “write fast, send it off, and start something new—you’ll learn as you go.” In 1922 he started a relationship with Methuen publishers that led to four popular history books.[3] In 1924, he published two little noticed novels; in 1926 he hit pay-dirt with Payment Deferred; in 1927 he wrote two more little-noticed novels, and a third in 1928; in 1929 he hit pay-dirt again with Brown on Resolution; in 1930 and 1931 he wrote two more little-noticed novels; then in 1932 and 1933 he wrote two successful historical novels, Death to the French,[4] and The Gun.[5] Then, suddenly, he was successful. He got a contract to spend a quarter of each year in Hollywood working on screen-plays. In 1935, “Brown on Resolution” became a movie[6]; he published both the still highly-regarded The General and The African Queen (and the soon-forgotten The Pursued). In 1937 and 1938 he published the first three novels in the “Horatio Hornblower” series.[7] These books launched a string of a dozen works that dominated his later career. Not knowing this in advance, in 1940 he wrote To the Indies, about Spanish conquistadors.
Then the Second World War came. He had missed “doing his bit” in the first war; he wasn’t going to miss it this time. He couldn’t soldier, but he could write. By 1938, he had created a series of British characters who were stolid, courageous, undeterred by adversity, and inventive about overcoming it. He had mastered the action scene.[8] The British Ministry of Information sent him to America. “You’ve been there, you know them, make us sympathetic, eh what?”[9]
So he moved to the United States. Lippity-lippity quick like a bunny, he wrote another novel about war in the Age of Fighting Sail. This time, the Hero-Captain was an American during the War of 1812.[10] It turns into a story of Anglo-American friendship developing in wartime. Timely, huh? Appearing in Summer 1941, it was a huge hit with critics and readers. He wrote a magazine story about Americans flying in the RAF while the United States remained neutral. It got made into a successful movie.[11] He wrote a magazine story about Commando raids on occupied Europe. It got made into a movie.[12] In 1942-1943, the Royal Navy took him along on missions. A trip on H.M.S. Penelope during a convoy to Malta resulted in the trim little fact-based novel The Ship (1943).[13]
After the war he stayed in America. He continued the Hornblower series to completion.[14] He also wrote a bunch of other stuff. In part, he wrote a different kind of fiction. The Sky and the Forest (1948) seems to me like the inspiration for Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1958). Or perhaps Achebe just reacted against the White man’s view of Africa, like he did with Joseph Conrad and Joyce Cary. But that’s just me. Randall and the River of Time (1951) is a bit of a head-scratcher, but it seems to me a riff on Ecclesiastes 9: 11-12. In part, the cobbler returned to his last, writing The Naval War of 1812/The Age of Fighting Sail (1957) about the naval side of the War of 1812; and Hunting the Bismarck/The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck/Sink the Bismarck (1959).[15]
Among that “other stuff” is The Good Shephard (1955). The book brings together The Captain from Connecticut and The Ship. That is, it is the story of an American Captain commanding the escort vessels of a convoy crossing the Atlantic in the face of ferocious U-boat attacks early in 1942. From this novel came the movie “Greyhound.”
[1] I think that I had read all his “Hornblower” books by the time he died. I was then twelve years old.
[2] Only a serious medical problem would get you rejected by the British Army in 1917-1918.
[3] Victor Emmanuel II (1922); Napoleon and His Court (1922); Josephine, Napoleon’s Empress (1925); Victor Emmanuel II and the Union of Italy (1927); Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre (1928).
[4] OK, this has a funny side to it. In America, it was titled Rifleman Dodd and its central character is Rifleman Matthew Dodd. He is a soldier in the 95th Regiment of Foot who becomes separated from his unit during Sir Arthur Wellesley’s retreat to the Lines of Torres Vedras. There is also a Rifleman Matthew Dodd who becomes separated from his unit in the 95th Regiment of Foot during Sir John Moore’s retreat to Coruna. He appears in Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe’s Escape (2004). Not an accident.
[5] Very loosely adapted as “The Pride and the Passion” (dir. Stanley Kramer, 1957). Interesting back-story.
[6] Forever England 1935 John Mills (youtube.com). Later remade as “Sailor of the King” (dir. Roy Boulting, 1953) Sailor Of The King 1953 (youtube.com)
[7] The Happy Return/Beat to Quarters (1937); A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours (both 1938). Warner Brothers bought all three. “Captain Horatio Hornblower” (dir. Raoul Walsh, 1951) tried to squeeze all three into one movie.
[8] Of course the battles are well done, but the towing-off of the dismasted flagship in Ship of the Line is memorable.
[9] Lynne Olson, Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941 (2013) casts some light on the British information/influence operations.
[10] Captain from Connecticut (1941).
[11] “Eagle Squadron,” (dir. Arthur Lubin, 1942).
[12] “Commandos Strike at Dawn” (dir. John Farrow, 1942). Filmed on Vancouver Island because of the close resemblance to Norway. HA!
[13] On the background and significance for this convoy, see My Weekly Reader 14 June 2021. | waroftheworldblog
[14] Commodore Hornblower (1945); Lord Hornblower (1946); Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (1950); Lieutenant Hornblower (1952); Hornblower and the Atropos (1953); Hornblower and the Hotspur (1962).
[15] See: “Sink the Bismarck!” (dir. Lewis Gilbert, 1960). Sink the Bismarck! 1960 Film in English Full HD, Kenneth More, Dana Wynter, Carl Möhner (youtube.com) Gilbert seems unknown now, but he directed a bunch of interesting stuff. Started with a short documentary on how cod liver oil is made. Lesson for all young people there. That same year, the country-western singer Johnny Horton came out with a song “Sink the Bismark!” (1960). American theaters often ran the song as part of the trailer for the movie. Sink The Bismarck (youtube.com)
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