Thomas Heggen (1919–1949)

MISTER ROBERTS, by Thomas Heggen, is a book it felt strange to be reading in the year 2023. About the comedic escapades of the officers and crew aboard a Navy cargo ship in the Pacific in the waning days of WWII, it was first published in 1946 and was an immediate bestseller. Then Heggen helped write a stage adaptation that ran for several years on Broadway with Henry Fonda as the title character. And in 1955 it became an equally successful movie, again with Fonda in the starring role. I'm pretty sure I saw it at the Reed Theater (long-gone now) right here in my hometown, when I was about twelve. And probably again a time or two on TV. Because it all seems very familiar. And I can even picture Fonda, Jack Lemon (Ensign Pulver), and James Cagney (the Captain) from the movie. But I had never read the novel until now. The book has been in and out of print over the past 75 years, and is currently out there as a "classic Navy novel" from the Naval Institute Press. It is still a very funny story, except for the ending of course (which reminded me of that final TV episode OF M*A*S*H). What is not funny is now knowing that author Thomas Heggen took his own life in 1949, at age 29, at the height of the play's popularity, so he never saw the film version. About 40-some years ago I read a book called ROSS AND TOM, a dual bio of Ross Lockridge, whose lone success was the book/film RAINTREE COUNTY, and Tom Heggen. They were friends who both had enormous, unexpected success, and both were suicides. Go figure, huh?

I read the pb edition pictured here, a yellowing, tattered copy from 1966, found in a pile of old books in the house of a recently deceased neighbor. I'm glad I finally read the original print version. Still funny, but with some darkness in there too, especially in hindsight so many years later. Very highly recommended. (And RIP, Mister Heggen.)

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (meer)