Gustav Hasford

Early life

Born in Russellville, Alabama, Hasford joined the United States Marine Corps in 1966 and served as a combat correspondent during the Vietnam War. As a military journalist, he wrote stories for Leatherneck Magazine, Pacific Stars and Stripes, and Sea Tiger. During his tour in Vietnam, Hasford was awarded the Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Valor Device, during the Battle of Huế in 1968.

Early literary career

Hasford associated with various science fiction writers of the 1970s (including Arthur Byron Cover and David J. Skal). He had works published in magazines and anthologies such as Space and Time and Damon Knight's Orbit series; he also published the poem, "Bedtime Story", in a 1972 edition of Winning Hearts and Minds, the first anthology of writing about the war by the veterans themselves; the poem was reprinted in Carrying the Darkness in 1985.)

First novel and film

In 1978, Hasford attended the Milford Writer's Workshop and met veteran science fiction author Frederik Pohl, who was then an editor at Bantam Books. At Pohl's suggestion, Hasford submitted The Short-Timers, and Pohl promptly bought it for Bantam.

The Short-Timers was published in 1979 and became a best-seller, described in Newsweek as “The best work of fiction about the Vietnam War". It was adapted into the feature film Full Metal Jacket (1987), directed by Stanley Kubrick, and the screenplay written by Hasford, Kubrick, and screenwriter Michael Herr was nominated for an Academy Award. Hasford's actual contributions were a subject of dispute among the three, and ultimately Hasford chose not to attend the Oscar ceremonies.

Library books theft charges

In 1985, Hasford had borrowed 98 books from the Sacramento, California public library and was wanted for grand theft there. Then, in 1988, shortly before the Oscars ceremony, he was charged with theft after campus police from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, found nearly 10,000 library books in his rented storage locker. At that time, he had 87 overdue books and five years of Civil War Times magazine issues checked out from the Cal Poly-SLO library; the materials were valued at over $20,000.

Hasford's book collection included books borrowed (and never returned) from dozens of libraries across the United States, from libraries in Australia and the United Kingdom, and, allegedly, books taken from the homes of acquaintances. Among them were 19th-century books on Edgar Allan Poe and the American Civil War. Hasford had obtained borrowing privileges at Cal Poly-SLO as a California resident, using a false address and Social Security number.

Hasford initially denied the charges, but he eventually admitted possession of several hundred stolen books and pleaded nolo contendere ("no contest") to possession of stolen property. He was sentenced to six months' imprisonment (of which he served three months) and promised to pay restitution from the royalties for his future works.

Hasford claimed that he wanted the books to research a never-published book on the Civil War. He described his difficulties as "a vicious attack launched against me by Moral Majority fanatics backed up by the full power of the Fascist State."

Second and third novels

In 1990, he published a second novel, The Phantom Blooper, a sequel to The Short-Timers. The sequel was supposed to be the second of a "Vietnam Trilogy", but Hasford died soon after completing The Phantom Blooper and before writing the third installment. Hasford's final novel is A Gypsy Good Time (1992), a hardboiled, noir detective story set in Los Angeles.

Death

Hasford, impoverished and suffering from untreated diabetes, moved to the Greek island of Aegina and died there of heart failure on 29 January 1993, aged 45.

Books

Additional reading