Ward Swift Just (September 5, 1935 – December 19, 2019) was an American writer. He was a war correspondent and the author of 19 novels and numerous short stories.

Biography

Just was born in

Michigan City, Indiana Michigan City is a city in LaPorte County, Indiana, United States. It had a population of 32,075 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located along Lake Michigan in the Michiana region, the city is about east of Chicago and is west o ...

, attended

Lake Forest Academy Lake Forest Academy (also known as LFA) is a co-educational college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9 through 12. The school is located on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore in Lake Forest, Illinois, United States ...

, and subsequently graduated from the Kingswood School (today Cranbrook Kingswood School) in 1953. He briefly attended

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

in Hartford, Connecticut. He started his career as a print journalist for the '' Waukegan (Illinois) News-Sun''. He married three times and had three children. Just died of complications from

Lewy body dementia Lewy body dementia (LBD) is an umbrella term for two similar and common subtypes of dementia: dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD). Both are characterized by changes in thinking, movement, behavior, and mood. The ...

Plymouth, Massachusetts Plymouth ( ; historically also spelled as Plimouth and Plimoth) is a town in and the county seat of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Greater Boston, the town holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklor ...

, on December 19, 2019. He was 84 years old.

War correspondent

Just covered the war in

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

(1957) and the conflict in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

for ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

''. Then Benjamin Bradlee hired Just at ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' as a war correspondent for the

Vietnam war The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. He published close to 400 articles, many appearing on the front page. He met journalist Frances Fitzgerald at a party soon after her arrival in

Saigon Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

in early 1966 and began a relationship with her that continued until she left

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...

in November 1966. He was wounded on 8 June 1966 covering Operation Hawthorne, but returned to Saigon for a second tour after recovering in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Leaving Saigon in May 1967, he wrote " To What End: Report from Vietnam," credited as being an important element in helping the nation understand the futility of that war. He went on to cover the presidential campaigns of both

Eugene McCarthy Eugene Joseph McCarthy (March 29, 1916December 10, 2005) was an American politician, writer, and academic from Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the United States Senate from 1959 to 1971. ...

and

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

for the ''Post'' in 1968 and was then asked to join its editorial board.

Fiction writing

Just's influences included

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

and

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

. His novel ''An Unfinished Season'' was a finalist for the

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...

in 2005. His novel ''Echo House'' was a finalist for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

in 1997. He was twice a finalist for the O. Henry Award, in 1985 for his short story ''About Boston,'' and again in 1986 for his short story ''The Costa Brava, 1959.'' He was Spring 1999

Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Recipients must be American citizens. Prizes have been aw ...

fellow. His fiction is often concerned with the influence of national politics on Americans' personal lives. Much of it is set in Washington, D.C., and foreign countries. Another common theme is the alienation felt by Midwesterners in the East. According to ''Washington Post'' book critic

Jonathan Yardley Jonathan Yardley (born October 27, 1939) is an American author and former book critic at ''The Washington Post'' from 1981 to December 2014, and held the same post from 1978 to 1981 at the '' Washington Star''. In 1981, he received the Pulitzer ...

, Just's finest novels are ''A Family Trust'', ''An Unfinished Season,'' ''Exiles in the Garden,'' and ''American Romantic.'' He also lists Just's short story collection, ''The Congressman Who Loved Flaubert,'' as one of his favorite books. Yardley recently wrote that "''American Romantic'' may well be the best of them all." In a column at

Literary Hub ''Literary Hub'' or ''LitHub'' is a daily literary website that was launched in 2015 by Grove Atlantic president and publisher Morgan Entrekin, American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame editor Terry McDonell, and '' Electric Literatur ...

in 2018, Susan Zakin wrote that "Ward Just is not merely America’s best political novelist. He is America’s greatest living novelist. To our discredit, he’s also America’s Greatest Unknown Novelist." In May 2013, The

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

at its annual induction and award ceremony inducted Ward Just as a new member of the Academy and honored his lifetime achievement in the field of Literature, along with an exhibition of his manuscripts.

Works

Novels

*''A Soldier of the Revolution'' (1970) *''Stringer'' (1974) *''Nicholson at Large'' (1975) *''A Family Trust'' (1978) *''In the City of Fear'' (1982) *''The American Blues'' (1984) *''The American Ambassador'' (1987) *''Jack Gance'' (1989) *''The Translator'' (1991) *''Ambition & Love'' (1994) *''Echo House'' (1997) *''A Dangerous Friend'' (1999) *''The Weather in Berlin'' (2002) *''An Unfinished Season'' (2004) *''Forgetfulness'' (2006) *''Exiles In The Garden'' (2009) *''Rodin's Debutante'' (2011) *''American Romantic'' (2014) *''The Eastern Shore'' (2016)

Story collections

*''The Congressman Who Loved Flaubert'' (1973) *''Honor, Power, Riches, Fame, and the Love of Women'' (1979) *''Twenty-one: Selected Stories'' (1990) *'' Lowell Limpett and Two Stories'' (2001)

Nonfiction

*''To What End'' (1968) *''Military Men'' (1970)

Plays

*''Lowell Limpett'' (2001)

Anthologized in

*''Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959–1969 (Part One)'' (1998)

References

External links

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

br>author page for Ward JustPerseus Books Group author page for Ward Just
*
Ward Just's Washington
by Michael Nelson, published in

The Virginia Quarterly Review The ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman. This ''"National Journal of Literature and Discussio ...

Brief biography with links to book excerpts
from the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

series ''Reporting America At War'' produced by Insignia Films and WETA
Interview, online at CBC Words at Large (audio)Ward Just Papers in Cranbrook Archives, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Just, Ward 1935 births 2019 deaths American male journalists 20th-century American novelists American short story writers Lake Forest Academy alumni Cranbrook Educational Community alumni Newsweek people People from Michigan City, Indiana People from Waukegan, Illinois The Washington Post people Novelists from Illinois Novelists from Indiana James Fenimore Cooper Prize winners 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American male short story writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Deaths from dementia in Massachusetts Deaths from Lewy body dementia Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters