The Winds of War was published by Little, Brown in 1971 and became an immediate bestseller — a massive (885-page) historical novel tracing the approach of World War II through the experiences of Captain Victor “Pug” Henry, a US Navy officer, and his extended family. The novel covers the period from March 1939 (Hitler’s seizure of Czechoslovakia) to December 1941 (Pearl Harbor), following the Henrys across Europe, America, and the Pacific as war engulfs the world.
Wouk’s method is to place fictional characters at the intersection of actual historical events: Pug Henry meets Roosevelt, Churchill, Hitler, and Stalin; his son Byron is in Warsaw when Germany invades and in Minsk when Germany attacks the Soviet Union; his daughter-in-law Natalie, a Jewish American, is trapped in Italy as persecution intensifies. This device — fictional witnesses to real events — allows Wouk to render historical narrative with novelistic immediacy.
The novel’s research is extraordinary: Wouk spent years studying military history, diplomatic archives, and personal accounts, and the historical passages have the authority of serious historiography. Interspersed with the narrative are excerpts from a fictional German general’s memoir (World Empire Lost by Armin von Roon), which provides the Axis perspective and adds another layer of interpretive complexity. The novel was adapted into a hugely successful ABC television miniseries in 1983.
Collecting The Winds of War
First edition (Little, Brown, Boston, 1971): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $25–$75
- Without jacket: $5–$15
- Signed copies: $100–$300