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Thomas Heggen

Born

in Fort Dodge, Webster County, Iowa, The United States

December 23, 1919

Died

May 19, 1949

Genre

Fiction

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Thomas Orlo Heggen (December 23, 1918 – May 19, 1949) was an American author best known for his 1946 novel Mister Roberts and its adaptations to stage and screen. Heggen became an Oklahoman in 1935, when in the depths of the Depression his father's business failed and his family moved from Iowa to Oklahoma City for work. He was Wallace Stegner's cousin.

After attending Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma State University, and graduating from the University of Minnesota, where he was classmate of Max Shulman, Thomas R. St. George and Norman Katkov, with a degree in journalism, Heggen moved to New York City and became an editor for Reader's Digest. He joined the U.S. Navy immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor and was commissioned as a li Thomas Orlo Heggen (December 23, 1918 – May 19, 1949) was an American author best known for his 1946 novel Mister Roberts and its adaptations to stage and screen. Heggen became an Oklahoman in 1935, when in the depths of the Depression his father's business failed and his family moved from Iowa to Oklahoma City for work. He was Wallace Stegner's cousin.

After attending Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma State University, and graduating from the University of Minnesota, where he was classmate of Max Shulman, Thomas R. St. George and Norman Katkov, with a degree in journalism, Heggen moved to New York City and became an editor for Reader's Digest. He joined the U.S. Navy immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor and was commissioned as a lieutenant in August 1942. For the duration of the War, he served on supply vessels in the North Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Pacific, the latter as assistant communications officer on the cargo ship USS Virgo and also the USS Rotanin.

During his 14 months aboard the Virgo, Heggen wrote a collection of vignettes about daily life on the ship, which he described as sailing "from Tedium to Apathy and back again, with an occasional side trip to Monotony". Like his fictional alter ego Doug Roberts, he felt "left out" of the War and butted heads with his commander, a coarse martinet who repeatedly denied his requests for transfer to a destroyer. The fictional "Captain Morton" of the movie and dramatizations was Naval Reserve Lieutenant Commander Herbert Ezra Randall, a Merchant Marine officer. According to Naval History magazine, Randall "had disdain for the ways of the Navy. Like his fictional “Old Stupid” counterpart, Captain Randall did own two palm trees, and like the characters Doug Roberts and Ensign Pulver, Heggen threw them over the side."

Following his discharge in December 1945, he returned to New York and reworked the material into a loosely structured novel, adding an introductory chapter. His original title, The Iron-Bound Bucket, was changed to Mister Roberts by the publisher.

Despite mixed reviews, it sold over one million copies and made Heggen the toast of the New York literary scene, followed by a lucrative offer to adapt the book for the Broadway stage. For this, he enlisted the aid of humorist Max Shulman but the collaboration did not work out. He then turned to producer-director Joshua Logan, who emphasized the work's farcical elements while retaining its serious undertones. With Henry Fonda in the title role, the 1948 stage version of Mister Roberts was a smash. Heggen and Logan shared the first Tony Award presented for Best Play.

Bewildered by the fame he had longed for, and under pressure to turn out another bestseller, he found himself with a crippling case of writer's block. "I don't know how I wrote Mister Roberts," he admitted to a friend. "It was spirit writing". He became an insomniac and tried to cure it with increasing amounts of alcohol and prescription drugs. On May 19, 1949, Heggen drowned in his bathtub at age 30 after an overdose of sleeping pills. His death was widely reported a probable suicide, though he left no note and those close to him insisted it was an accident. The Chief Medical Examiner reported on June 8, 1949 that Heggen died by drowning though chemical analysis had revealed a "considerable amount of barbiturates". ...more

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Average rating: 4.12 · 590 ratings · 68 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors

	Mister Roberts 4.17 avg rating — 518 ratings — published 1946 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mister Roberts: A Play 3.82 avg rating — 72 ratings — published 1948	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	"Mister Roberts" - Leland Hayward Presents Tod Andrews and the New York Company In... - [Souvenir Program] 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	"Mister Roberts" - Leland Hayward Presents John Forsythe In. - [Souvenir Program] 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mister Roberts; 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mr. Roberts 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best Short Stories of World War II: an American Anthology. by James Jones, William Faulkner, Stephen Vincent Benét 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1957	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Thomas Heggen (?)

“What manner of ship is this? What does it do? What is its combat record? Well, those are fair questions, if difficult ones. The Reluctant, as was said, is a naval auxiliary. It operates in the back areas of the Pacific. In its holds it carries food and trucks and dungarees and toothpaste and toilet paper. For the most part it remains on its regular run, from Tedium to Apathy and back; about five days each way. It makes an occasional trip to Monotony, and once it made a run all the way to Ennui, a distance of two thousand nautical miles from Tedium. It performs its dreary and unthanked job, and performs it, if not inspiredly, then at least adequately.”
― Thomas Heggen, Mister Roberts

5 likes

“ ...from Tedium to Apathy and back; about five days each way. It makes an occasional trip to Monotony, and once it made a run all the way to Ennui..."
Mr. Roberts”
― Thomas Heggen

2 likes

Polls

July 2014 Contemporary Classic -

Which book would you like to read for our July 2014 Contemporary Classic Group Read?

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

48 votes, 21.1%

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6 votes, 2.6%

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3 votes, 1.3%

Berlin Alexanderplatz: The Story of Franz Biberkopf by Alfred Döblin

3 votes, 1.3%

Mister Roberts by Thomas Heggen

1 vote, 0.4%

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0 votes, 0.0%

228 total votes

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Thomas Heggen’s Followers (3)

Thomas Heggen

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