Winston Groom

FAIRHOPE, Ala. (AP) — Winston Groom, the writer whose novel “Forrest Gump” was made into an Oscar winning 1994 movie that became an enduring cultural phenomenon, has died. 

His death was confirmed Thursday night by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and the mayor of Fairhope, Alabama, where Groom lived.

“The Allies: Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, and the Unlikely Alliance That Won World War II”

Author: Winston Groom 

Publisher: National Geographic

Pages: 463

Price: $30.00 (Hardcover)

“The Allies” is Winston Groom’s twentieth book, his twelfth book of nonfiction. Not surprisingly, he has become a smooth storyteller, usually writing about America’s wars—Civil, 1812, or the Western Front in WWI, reading and synthesizing huge quantities of material and presenting it in narrative form for the common reader.

“El Paso: A Novel”

Author: Winston Groom  

Publisher: Liveright: a Division of W. W. Norton

New York

2016

Price: $27.95 (Hardcover)

Pages: 477

After publishing 7 novels, including the mega-hit “Forrest Gump” in 1986, Groom left off writing novels and turned to nonfiction. He has published 10 works of history, mainly on military subjects, from the Civil War battles of Shiloh and Vicksburg to WWI fighting in Flanders to the darkest period of WWII, the year 1942.

“The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II”

Author: Winston Groom  

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Pages: 512

Price: $30.00 (Hardcover)

“The Generals,” Groom’s tenth volume of military history, tells the stories of George Patton, George Marshall and Douglas MacArthur.

It was only two years ago that Winston Groom published “The Aviators,” the story of three pioneers: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle and Charles Lindberg.

Vicksburg, 1863, is Groom's fifteenth book, and it is beginning to look as if he will be known, in the end, as Winston Groom, gifted narrative historian, not just as the author of Forrest Gump, notwithstanding how delightful that novel is.

By Don Noble

Vicksburg, 1863, is Groom's fifteenth book, and it is beginning to look as if he will be known, in the end, as Winston Groom, gifted narrative historian, not just as the author of Forrest Gump, notwithstanding how delightful that novel is.

War is nearly the perfect subject, as Tolstoy and Hemingway, to name a couple, have shown. And the War of 1812, in particular, is a fine choice.

By Don Noble

Right from his first book, Winston Groom has been taking his readers on a march through America?s wars, from the Civil War through the war in Vietnam. I am told that there is another book coming set during the war with Mexico. That will leave Groom only the American Revolution and the Spanish American War, of our major wars, to hit for the cycle.

Don Noble reviews Patriotic Fire by "Forrest Gump" author Winston Groom.

By Don Noble

Text version coming soon. Click the MP3 link above to listen to the review.

Winston Groom may be better known for Forest Gump, goofily portrayed on film by Tom Hanks. But Groom is also a historian. His newest work, 1942: The Year That Tried Men's Souls, is a focused study of that crucially important, pivotal first year of WWII.

By Don Noble

1942: The Year That Tried Men's Souls

Twenty years ago, most Americans would have identified Winston Groom as the creator of Forrest Gump, goofily immortalized in film by Tom Hanks.