Winston Francis Groom Jr. is an American novelist and non-fiction writer. He is known for writing Forrest Gump, which was adapted into the 1994 film Forrest Gump directed by Robert Zemeckis. The film was considered a cultural phenomenon and won six Academy Awards. He published a sequel, Gump and Co., in 1995. He has also written numerous non-fiction works, on diverse subjects including the American Civil War and World War I.
Early life
Groom was born in Washington, D.C., and was raised in Mobile County, Alabama, where he attended University Military School. Groom's earliest ambition was to become a lawyer like his father; but, instead, while a literary editor in college, he chose to become a writer. Groom attended the University of Alabama, where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity and the ArmyROTC, graduating in 1965. He served in the Army from 1965 to 1967, including a tour of duty in the Vietnam War. Most of his Army service was with the Fourth Infantry Division.
Career
Upon his return from Vietnam, Groom worked as a reporter for the Washington Star, a Washington, D. C. newspaper covering the justice department and federal court system. Groom resigned to pursue a career in writing novels. Groom's first novel was Better Times Than These which was published in 1978. Better Times Than These was about a rifle company in the Vietnam War whose lives and patriotism both are shattered. His next novel As Summers Die received better recognition. His book Conversations with the Enemy follows an American Vietnam War soldier who escapes from a POW camp and takes a plane back to the United States only to be arrested fourteen years later for desertion. Conversations with the Enemy was a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction finalist in 1984. In 1985, Groom moved back to Mobile, Alabama, where he began to work on the novel Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump was published in 1986; however, it did not make Groom a best-selling author until it was adapted into a film with the same name in 1994, a film starring Tom Hanks in the title role of Forrest Gump. The film propelled the novel to best-seller status, and the novel sold 1.7 million copies worldwide. However, Paramount Pictures utilized Hollywood accounting to deflate profitability numbers of the film and Groom received no payment for his 3% profit share on the film. In November 2011, Groom introduced his latest history book, Kearny's March: The Epic Creation of the American West, 1846–1847. Groom describes how Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny's quest for westward adventure coincides with the expansionist desires of the U.S. President, James K. Polk. Anchored in mid-summer 1846, the context for both the adventures and expansionism is the Texas Annexation, the Mexican–American War, and the backdrop to the American Civil War. Just as in the film adaptation of Groom's book Forrest Gump, where Gump is introduced through the technology of production companyIndustrial Light & Magic to a cast of celebrities including a young Elvis Presley, President John F. Kennedy, and President Richard Nixon, Groom weaves into Kearny's March mountain man Kit Carson, Brigham Young and his Mormon followers, and members of the Donner party. In 2016, El Paso, Groom's first novel in nearly 20 years, was published.
