Youngblood Hawke was published by Doubleday in 1962 and is Wouk’s novel about the American literary world — a massive book inspired primarily by the career of Thomas Wolfe (the early-twentieth-century Southern novelist, not Tom Wolfe the journalist) but drawing also on the experiences of other prodigiously talented and self-destructive American writers.
Arthur Youngblood Hawke arrives in New York from Kentucky with a massive first novel and proceeds to conquer the literary world through sheer talent and energy. He publishes novel after novel, each a bestseller; he has affairs with powerful women; he makes and loses fortunes; he works himself to death at thirty-seven. The novel is simultaneously a celebration of literary genius and a cautionary tale about what America does to its artists: the money, the fame, the sexual opportunities, and the relentless pressure to produce all conspire to destroy the creative gift they are supposed to reward.
Wouk’s portrait of the publishing industry — the editors, agents, critics, and hostesses who constitute New York’s literary ecosystem — is detailed and satirical. His Hawke is both heroic (genuinely talented, genuinely driven by artistic vision) and self-destructive (unable to manage money, unable to resist women, unable to pace himself). The novel was made into a film (1964) and remains interesting as a portrait of mid-century American literary culture from the inside.
Collecting Youngblood Hawke
First edition (Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1962): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $15–$40
- Without jacket: $5–$10