The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford

Fourth Bantam paperback printing of The Short-Timers from 1988

The Short-Timers was Vietnam veteran Gustav Hasford's first novel based largely on his experiences as a combat correspondent during the war. First published in 1979 to the bestseller list and currently out of print, The Short-Timers was adapted into the Stanley Kubrick film Full Metal Jacket in 1987 to great acclaim. Kubrick's film largely remains true to the novel with minor differences, and Hasford himself helped pen the screenplay; following an Oscar nomination, however, the amount of Hasford's actual work came under scrutiny by co-writers Kubrick and fellow veteran Michael Herr. At the same time, it was discovered that Hasford had been checking out and never returning books from various university libraries around the country under a phony social security number. Nearly ten thousand stolen books were discovered in his storage locker in California, for which he ultimately paid restitution and served three months in jail. The Short-Timers is a great piece of fiction by itself, and without it Full Metal Jacket couldn't have existed; that said, Hasford's literary career was a short, staggering one that only saw the publication of a sequel to this novel 12 years later (probably written for the money) and a flimsy, unnoticed detective novel published a year before his death. The Short-Timers is without a doubt Hasford's slim masterpiece, and supports believers of the notion that some writers only have one good book in them.

Men Die by H.L. Humes

First edition of Men Die by H.L. Humes (front)

This is H.L. Humes' previously mentioned second and final novel, Men Die. It is much shorter (less than 200 pages) and was published the following year in 1959 by Random House to similar acclaim. While the title is maybe a little blunt, Men Die is much more daring and technically-inventive than The Underground City, in addition to being far more compact. It centers around an explosion in an American munitions depot just before the outbreak of World War II in the Caribbean. The Underground City is a better book in my opinion, but Men Die has its own merit and is also the last piece of writing from H.L. Humes. The back and front cover art is some of the finest I've come across—the current reprint only has the front title in black being that it's a paperback.

(back cover)

The Underground City by H.L. Humes

British First Edition from 1958

This is H.L. Humes' first novel, published in America in 1958 by Random House and in Great Britain the same year by Heinemann. It is a sprawling World War II novel (758 pages!) about the French resistance, politics, war, life, and humanity—it is without question one of my favorite books. Humes was a co-founder of the Paris Review, among many other things, and this was the first of two books he published in his lifetime. I have had the extraordinary pleasure of archiving Humes' papers, which are now currently in the process of finding a home, and I think it's fair to say at this point that I know a great deal about the man and his works. 

A note to Humes from the Publicity Department at Random House (image courtesy of the Humes Archive) 

Part of a stellar review clipped from the Chicago Sunday Tribune (image courtesy of the Humes Archive)

Both his novels, The Underground City in particular, are incredibly under-read and unknown despite being very successful upon release. Humes later suffered a breakdown that in many ways he never recovered from in the mid-1960's, and stopped writing for the most part. Both his novels were reprinted 40 years later by Random House at the beginning of 2008, which you should go and buy without question.

An advanced reading copy of The Underground City

Currently in print new edition of The Underground City