Martin Russ

Martin Faxon Russ (February 14, 1931, in Newark, New Jersey – December 6, 2010 in Oakville, California) was an American military author, Marine, and associate professor at Carnegie-Mellon University. He attended the South Kent School, and St. Lawrence University for two years before enlisting in the US Marine Corps in 1951.

His first book, The Last Parallel, a New York Times bestseller and a Book of the Month Club selection, was based (with changed names) on his service in the 1st Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division during the Korean War. J. D. Salinger called it “a very legitimate, sinewy, authentic war book”; the New York Herald Tribune called it “Top rank among soldiers’ war records of all time.” It was later optioned, but not produced, by director Stanley Kubrick. Most of his later work was based on interviews with combat veterans.

Publications

Fiction

• Half Moon Haven (1959)
• War Memorial (1967)

Non-fiction

• Happy Hunting Ground (1968)
• Line of Departure: Tarawa. Doubleday (1975). ISBN 978-0385096690
• Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950. Penguin Books (2000). ISBN 978-0140292596

Memoirs

• The Last Parallel (1957) ISBN 978-0837167701
• Showdown Semester: Advice from a Writing Professor (1988)