List of authors in war
Many of the authors that served in various real-life wars (and survived) wrote stories that are at least somewhat based on their own experiences. Some of them are outright memoirs or fictionalized accounts of their exploits.
Greco-Persian Wars
Gallic War
Napoleonic Wars
American Civil War
Mexican Revolution
- Mariano Azuela, (Los de abajo)
World War I
- Henri Barbusse, served in France (Under Fire)
- E. E. Cummings, volunteer ambulance driver (The Enormous Room)
- Robert Graves, infantry officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers (Goodbye to All That)
- Jaroslav Hašek, served in Austrian and Czech armies (who were on opposing sides), (The Good Soldier Švejk)
- Ernest Hemingway, drove ambulances in Italy (A Farewell to Arms)
- William Hope Hodgson, Killed by the direct impact of an artillery shell at the Fourth Battle of Ypres (The House on the Borderland)
- Ernst Jünger, (Sturm, Storm of Steel)
- T. E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia (Seven Pillars of Wisdom)
- C. S. Lewis, British Army, Third Battalion Somerset Light Infantry, served in trench warfare at Somme Valley (The Chronicles of Narnia)
- A. A. Milne, British Army, British Home Guard
- Emilio Lussu, (Sardinian Brigade)
- H. E. L. Mellersh, infantry officer in the East Lancashire Regiment (Schoolboy Into War)
- Wilfred Owen
- Erich Maria Remarque, infantry soldier, wounded in Passchendaele (All Quiet on the Western Front)
- Siegfried Sassoon, infantry officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers (Memoirs of an Infantry Officer)
- J. R. R. Tolkien, Lancashire Fusiliers, served in trench warfare at Somme Valley, Battle at Thiepval Ridge and assault on Schwaben Redoubt (The Lord of the Rings), 2nd Lt.
- Lajos Zilahy, (Century in Scarlet)
- Joyce Kilmer, killed during the Second Battle of Marne
Spanish Civil War
- Alvah Bessie, volunteer, served in the Abraham Lincoln XV International Brigade on the Republican side (Men In Battle; A Story Of Americans In Spain)
- Arthur Koestler, interned by the Nationalists
- Laurie Lee, served on the Republican side (A Moment of War)
- George Orwell, served and wounded on the Republican side (Homage to Catalonia)
- Albert Prago, volunteer, served in the Abraham Lincoln XV International Brigade on the Republican side (Our fight : writings by veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, Spain, 1936–1939)
- Arthur Koestler, interned by the Nationalists
- Gustaf Munch-Petersen, served and died in the International Brigades
World War II
- Brian Aldiss, Royal Corps of Signals, saw action in Burma (Non-Stop, [No Time Like Tomorrow])
- Kingsley Amis, Royal Corps of Signals (Lucky Jim)
- Philip Appleman
- Isaac Asimov, Philadelphia Navy Yard Naval Air Experimentation Station, United States Army (Foundation)
- J. G. Ballard, interned as a boy in Shanghai (Empire of the Sun)
- Capt. Edward L. Beach, Jr., United States Navy (Run Silent, Run Deep)
- Earle Birney, Canadian Army (Turvey)
- Pierre Boulle, British Special Forces (Bridge on the River Kwai)
- Flt. Lt. Arthur C. Clarke, Royal Air Force (2001: A Space Odyssey)
- Col. Hal Clement, pilot Consolidated B-24 Liberator, 68th Bomb Squadron, 44th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force, European Theatre (Mission of Gravity)
- L. Sprague de Camp, Philadelphia Navy Yard Naval Air Experimentation Station (Lest Darkness Fall) pilot
- Roald Dahl, Royal Air Force, saw combat in the Mediterranean and was a flying ace. Wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
- Anthony Faramus, survived Fort de Romainville, Buchenwald and Mauthausen concentration camps (Journey Into Darkness. 1990)
- Frank Kelly Freas, United States Army Air Forces, South Pacific
- Samuel Fuller, – (The Big Red One)
- H. L. Gold, United States Army (Beyond Fantasy Fiction)
- William Golding, participated in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, commanding a landing ship that fired salvoes of rockets onto the beaches, and was in action at Walcheren at which 23 out of 24 assault craft were sunk. (Lord of the Flies)
- .Günter Grass Nobel Prize 1999, Waffen-SS, Germany. Tin Drum
- James Gunn (author), U.S. Navy (This Fortress World)
- Sven Hassel, Danish-born penal regiment soldier
- Robert A. Heinlein, Lt., graduate of the United States Naval Academy. Served in U.S. Navy aboard USS Lexington (CV-2), USS Roper (DD-147), Philadelphia Navy Yard (Stranger in a Strange Land)
- Joseph Heller, served in 12th Air Force (Catch-22)
- Herman Wouk, served in the Navy, Pacific (The Caine Mutiny)
- Frank Herbert, U.S. Navy Seabees (Dune)
- L. Ron Hubbard, U.S. Navy (The Way to Happiness)
- James Jones (author), 25th Infantry Division, United States Army, Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal (From Here to Eternity, The Thin Red Line)
- Cyril M. Kornbluth, United States Army. Bronze Star recipient for service as heavy machine gunner at the Battle of the Bulge (The Space Merchants)
- R. A. Lafferty, 1st Sgt., United States Army Pacific Theatre (Fourth Mansions)
- Alistair MacLean, Royal Navy (HMS Ulysses)
- Norman Mailer, served in South Pacific (The Naked and the Dead)
- Harry Martinson, Swedish volunteer in Winter War (Verklighet Till Döds)
- John Masters Gurkha officer, served in North Africa and Burma with the Chindits (Bhowani Junction, The Road Past Mandalay)
- Samuel Menashe, United States Army, served in the Battle of the Bulge.
- Nicholas Monsarrat
- Sgt. Frederik Pohl, United States Army Air Forces, 456th Bombardment Group, European Theatre (Gateway)
- J.D. Salinger, United States Army, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, active at Utah Beach on D-Day, in the Battle of the Bulge, and the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. (The Catcher in the Rye)
- Harvey Shapiro, United States Army Air Force, flew 35 combat missions over Europe as a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress tail gunner and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
- Col. Konstantin Simonov, Soviet Army (The Immortal Garrison)
- Leon Uris, United States Marine Corps, Pacific Theatre, Guadalcanal, Tarawa (Battle Cry)
- A. E. van Vogt, Canadian Department of National Defence (Slan)
- Pvt. Gore Vidal, United States Army (Julian)
- Pvt. Kurt Vonnegut, United States Army infantry soldier, 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division, captured during the Battle of the Bulge, survived bombing of Dresden as a POW (Slaughterhouse Five)
- Lt. Evelyn Waugh, Royal Marines, later Royal Horse Guards served in Crete and Yugoslavia (Men at Arms, The End of the Battle)
- Jack Williamson, U.S. Army Air Corps (Darker Than You Think)
- William Woodruff was a Major in the 24th Guards Brigade of the British 1st Infantry Division at Anzio. Vessel of Sadness[1] is based on his experience of the battle.
- Cpl. John Wyndham, Royal Corps of Signals, landed at Normandy (The Day of the Triffids)
- Richard Yates (novelist)
Korean War
First Indochina War
Vietnam War
- David Drake
- David Hackworth, in US Army (Vietnam Primer, About Face, Steel My Soldiers' Hearts)
- Joe Haldeman
- Gustav Hasford
- Ron Kovic
- Karl Marlantes, US Marine Corps (What it is Like to Go to War, Matterhorn)
- Tim O'Brien
- James Robinson Risner
- Senator Jim Webb
- Tobias Wolff
- Stephen Wright
- Robert Jordan US Army helicopter gunner
Falklands War
- Robert Lawrence, (When The Fighting Is Over)
Gulf War
- "Andy McNab"
- "Chris Ryan"
- Anthony Swofford, in US Marines (Jarhead (book))
Iraq War
Afghanistan War
See also
- List of military writers – people who write about war but did not necessarily serve in war