Mac Hyman (born Mackenzie Hooks Hyman; August 25, 1923July 17, 1963), was an American fiction writer who is known for his best-selling novel ''

No Time for Sergeants ''No Time for Sergeants'' is a 1954 best-selling novel by Mac Hyman, which was adapted into a teleplay on '' The United States Steel Hour'', a popular Broadway play and 1958 motion picture, as well as a 1964 television series. The book chronic ...

'', which was adapted into a popular Broadway play and a motion picture.

Early life and service

Hyman was born in

Cordele, Georgia Cordele is a city in and the county seat of Crisp County, Georgia. The population was 11,165 at the 2010 census, and 10,220 in 2020. Cordele calls itself the watermelon capital of the world. History 19th century Cordele was incorporated on ...

, where he discovered his passion for writing as a student in high school, and first displayed his skill in a humorous article published in the school newspaper. Following a year at North Georgia College and State University, he attended

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

starting in 1941. He interrupted his studies to serve in the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

as a photo navigator Lieutenant on B-29's and flew 29 combat missions over Japan. When he returned to Duke in 1946 under the

G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...

, his talent was recognized by his creative writing professor, William Blackburn, who became his mentor and lifelong friend, and who eventually edited his collected letters. Just before graduating from Duke in February 1947, Hyman married his high school sweetheart, Gwendolyn Holt. In 1949, after the first of his three children was born, he reenlisted in the air force and served until 1952.

Writing debut

Between 1947 and 1954, drawing heavily on his personal experiences from the army, Hyman worked on ''No Time for Sergeants'', the misadventures of a country bumpkin draftee named Will Stockdale, whose hometown of Callville closely resembles Cordele, and who narrates his own story in an uneducated southern dialect. Several publishers rejected the manuscript before it was finally accepted by

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

and published in 1954. The popularity of the book resulted in a Broadway show and a film, which launched the career of

Andy Griffith Andy Samuel Griffith (June 1, 1926 – July 3, 2012) was an American actor, comedian, television producer, singer, and writer whose career spanned seven decades in music and television. Known for his Southern drawl, his characters with a folksy ...

After ''No Time for Sergeants''

Hyman, who was living in Cordele with his wife and three children, had published just three short stories and was struggling with his second novel when he died of a heart attack in 1963, at age 39. That second novel, ''Take Now Thy Son'', and a collection of Hyman's letters entitled ''Love, Boy: The Letters of Mac Hyman'' were both published posthumously.

Other works and facts

His short story " The Hundredth Centennial" was published by ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

'' in 1954. Another short story, " The Dove Shoot", was published in a collection of works by Duke authors in 1963. Hyman's daughter Gwyn Hyman Rubio is the author of '' Icy Sparks'' and '' The Woodsman's Daughter''.

References

External links

*
Mac Hyman biography at the New Georgia Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyman, Mac 1923 births 1963 deaths 20th-century American novelists American humorists Novelists from Georgia (U.S. state) Duke University alumni People from Cordele, Georgia United States Army Air Forces soldiers United States Army personnel of World War II American male novelists American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers