World War II
- Brian Aldiss, Royal Corps of Signals, saw action in Burma (Non-Stop, )
- Kingsley Amis, Royal Corps of Signals (Lucky Jim)
- Isaac Asimov, Philadelphia Navy Yard Naval Air Experimentation Station, United States Army (Foundation)
- J. G. Ballard, interned as a boy in Shanghai (Empire of the Sun)
- Edward L. Beach, Jr.
- Earle Birney, Canadian Army (Turvey)
- Pierre Boulle, in British Special Forces (Bridge on the River Kwai)
- Flt. Lt. Arthur C. Clarke, Royal Air Force (2001: A Space Odyssey)
- Col. Hal Clement, pilot B-24 Liberator, 68th Bomb Squadron, 44th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force, European Theatre (Mission of Gravity)
- L. Sprague de Camp, Philadelphia Navy Yard Naval Air Experimentation Station (Lest Darkness Fall)
- Anthony Faramus, survived Fort de Romainville, Buchenwald and Mauthausen concentration camps (Journey Into Darkness. 1990)
- Frank Kelly Freas, United States Army Air Forces, South Pacific
- Samuel Fuller – (The Big Red One)
- H. L. Gold United States Army (Beyond Fantasy Fiction)
- James Gunn (author), U.S. Navy (This Fortress World)
- Sven Hassel, Danish-born penal regiment soldier
- Lt. Robert A. Heinlein, Graduate of the United States Naval Academy. Served in U.S. Navy aboard USS Lexington (CV-2), USS Roper (DD-147), Philadelphia Navy Yard (Stranger in a Strange Land)
- Joseph Heller, served in 12th Air Force (Catch-22)
- Frank Herbert, U.S. Navy Seabees (Dune)
- L. Ron Hubbard, U.S. Navy (The Way to Happiness)
- James Jones (author), 25th Infantry Division, United States Army, Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal (From Here to Eternity, )
- Cyril M. Kornbluth, United States Army. Bronze Star recipient for service as heavy machine gunner at the Battle of the Bulge (The Space Merchants)
- 1st Sgt. R. A. Lafferty, United States Army Pacific Theatre (Fourth Mansions)
- Alistair MacLean, in the Royal Navy (HMS Ulysses)
- Norman Mailer, served in South Pacific (The Naked and the Dead)
- Harry Martinson, Swedish volunteer in Winter War (Verklighet Till Döds)
- John Masters Gurkha officer, served in North Africa and Burma with the Chindits (Bhowani Junction, The Road Past Mandalay)
- Nicholas Monsarrat
- Sgt. Frederik Pohl, United States Army Air Forces, 456th Bombardment Group, European Theatre (Gateway)
- Col. Konstantin Simonov, Soviet Army (The Immortal Garrison)
- Leon Uris, United States Marine Corps, Pacific Theatre, Guadalcanal, Tarawa (Battle Cry)
- A. E. van Vogt, Canadian Department of National Defence (Slan)
- Pvt. Gore Vidal, United States Army (Williwaw)
- Pvt. Kurt Vonnegut, United States Army infantry soldier, 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division, captured during the Battle of the Bulge, survived bombing of Dresden as a POW (Slaughterhouse Five)
- Lt. Evelyn Waugh, in Royal Marines, later Royal Horse Guards served in Crete and Yugoslavia (Men at Arms, The End of the Battle)
- Jack Williamson, U.S. Army Air Corps (Darker Than You Think)
- Cpl. John Wyndham, Royal Corps of Signals, landed at Normandy (The Day of the Triffids)
- Capt. Vasily Zaytsev, Soviet Navy, Soviet Army, 1047th Rifle Regiment, 284th Rifle Division, 62nd Army; subject of (Enemy at the Gates)
Read more about this topic: List Of Authors In War
Famous quotes containing the words world war, world and/or war:
“The descendants of Holy Roman Empire monarchies became feeble-minded in the twentieth century, and after World War I had been done in by the democracies; some were kept on to entertain the tourists, like the one they have in England.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“The process of education in the oldest profession in the world is like any other educational process, in that it requires time and effort and patience; it can only be acquired by taking one step at a time, though the steps become accelerated after the first few.”
—Madeleine [Blair], U.S. prostitute and “madam.” Madeleine, ch. 4 (1919)
““... War is for everyone, for children too.
I wasn’t going to tell you and I mustn’t.
The best way is to come uphill with me
And have our fire and laugh and be afraid.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)