Talk:W. E. B. Griffin

Pritzker & WEB Griffin
The Pritzker Military Museum & Library is one of two depository libraries for Griffin. Please help us by using our collections to upgrade this Wikipedia article. TeriEmbrey (talk) 16:57, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Untitled
There's an article on William Edmund Butterworth III which is not well written, but has more of his books listed. Prehaps they should be brought over? Salsb 3 July 2005 01:42 (UTC) WRITING AS: WEBB BEECH Article 92 Murder – Rape, Fawcett, 1964. Make War In Madness, Fawcett, 1966. No French Leave, Fawcett, 1959. Warrior’s Way, Fawcett, 1965.

Useful Content
The following, excerpted from the William Edmund Butterworth III article, should be incorporated in this article. The rest of that article duplicates the content already presented here. I'm going to blank the page and have it redirect here.

What we really need are good summaries of some of his series, and maybe brief sketches of some of his better known characters like "Pick" Pickering and Craig W. Lowell. I've never read any of his cop books, so someone else will have to do those. --Jpbrenna 3 July 2005 04:11 (UTC)

WRITING AS: WALTER E. BLAKE Heartbreak Ridge, Berkley, 1962. Hell On Wheels, Berkley, 1962. Doing What Comes Naturally, Monarch, 1965. Once More With Passion, Monarch, 1964. The Girl in the Black Bikini, Berkley, 1963. The Loved And The Lost, Berkley, 1961.

WRITING AS: JACK DUGAN The Deep Kill, Jove-Putnam, 1984.

WRITING AS: JOHN KEVIN DUGAN BADGE OF HONOR Series Men In Blue, New York: Jove, 1991. Special Operations, New York: Jove 1991. (originally published [Jove 1988] under pseudonym John Kevin Dugan)

WRITING AS: EDEN HUGHES The Selkirks, New American Library, 1982. The Wiltons, New American Library, 1981.

WRITING AS: JAMES McM.DOUGLAS A Long Ride On A Cycle, Putnam’s 1972. Drag Race Driver, Norton, 1971. Hunger For Racing, Norton, 1967. The Twelve Cylinder Screamer, Putnam’s 1971, Racing To Glory, Norton, 1969.

WRITING AS: ALLISON MITCHELL Wild Harvest, New American Library, 1983. Wild Heritage, New American Library, 1984.

WRITING AS: EDMUND O. SCHOLEFIELD Bryan’s Dog, World, 1967. L’il Wildcat, World, 1965. Maverick On The Mound, World, 1968. Tiger Rookie, World, 1966. Yankee Boy, World, 1970.

WRITING AS: BLAKELY ST. JAMES Christina’s Passion, Playboy Press, 1977.

WRITING AS: PATRICK J. WILLIAMS Fastest Funny Car, Norton, 1967. Flat Out, Norton 1965. Grand Prix Racing, Scholastic, 1968. Racing Mechanic, Grosset & Dunlap, 1971. Return to Daytona, Norton, 1962. Team Racer, Norton 1972 The Green Ghost, Norton 1968.

Rationale for redirect

 * His earlier military novels have been re-published under the W.E.B Griffin name, thus, by far the greatest number of works in his catalogue are under that name. That is the name he uses on his official promotional website, and when he dies, he will doubtless by known to posterity by his nom-de-plume, not his birthname, a-la-Mark Twain.  We should keep the main article here, and have his birth name and aliases redirect. --Jpbrenna 3 July 2005 04:17 (UTC)

I suspected so, but I wanted someone who knew better to comment, or do it, first. thanks Salsb 3 July 2005 17:13 (UTC)
 * I agree: consolidate in the article, list all pseudonyms (are you sure these aren't the pseudonyms of Jubal Harshaw, BTW?[wink]) & make each pseudonym a redirect to it.
 * Personally, i'd put a sub-section under Biblo for each pseudonym, and note the titles that have been repub'ed under WEBG.
 * --Jerzy·t 4 July 2005 03:39 (UTC)
 * P.S. I will undertake to list the pseudos on LoPbN, but it will be a quicker job for me after the redirects are in place. --Jerzy·t 4 July 2005 03:56 (UTC)
 * I can't speak for anybody else, but I know him better from his juveniles as Butterworth. I had no idea Griffin was him. Trekphiler 23:55, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
 * The same is true for me. I had no idea my favorite author as a young boy was W.E.B. Griffin. However, I'll be the first to admit MASH is a much better known book than Stock Car Driver.Marshall Stax 22:44, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

MASH
Is this the same William E Butterworth who co-wrote most of the MASH sequels? --Gadget850 13:53, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
 * As I understand it, the weren't exactly sequels, but written to take advantage of the success of the film. All were written by Butterworth alone, crediting Hooker (a pseudonym itself) with "co-writing". Trekphiler 23:57, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Combat Infantryman Badge
The article says he received a CIB for being a reporter at the front line - anyone know if this is correct? A CIB is only given to infantry personnel engaged in combat, not to military reporters, no matter how close to the fighting they get. Nobunaga24 22:03, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
 * The source for that is Griffin's website. I don't have any way independently verifying the award.  His MOS wasn't Infantry, and Special Forces did not exist at the time - so according to the award criteria listed in the Combat Infantry Badge article, he would be ineligible.  However, it should be noted that the same article notes certain exceptions that were made for military advisors and others  in the Vietnam era; similar exceptions could have been made in Korea - especially since Griffin seems to have been I.D. White's a**hole buddy.  But any speculation is original research, a Wiki taboo.  If you can find a source that contradicts the CIB claim, go ahead and cite it - maybe David Hackworth's organization uncovered something, but I doubt it.  Griffin is very high-profile and if he were B.S.-ing about the medal, somebody probably would have called him on it by now.
 * Another possibility is that there is a mistake on the website. Maybe he got some other award and the website developer or publicist goofed.  We could always e-mail his publicist and ask.--Jpbrenna 23:33, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Additional books as W.E. Butterworth
Sorry I didn't check here first, but I added some juvenile fiction and non-fiction books authored as W.E.Butterworth directly to the article. (I have enjoyed his juvenile fiction since I was a teenager.) Should I have added them to this talk page instead? I like the paragraph format here - the list format becomes overly long.

69.231.252.26 05:21, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm only the piano player
Did WEB create Arnie Tasjian? I haven't been able to track down any of the books with him in them... And is he the same Williams who created the Black Tiger series? (He's not... 00:00, 28 April 2007 (UTC)) Trekphiler 23:59, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

New book
honor bound book 4 released june 2008. has anyone else read the honor bound series? Killkola (talk) 00:35, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

I've read the three previous books in the series numerous times. I thoroughly enjoyed each, I'm truly happy to see the fourth in the series is out I have been waiting to come out for six years. stardust5922 June 20, 2008

I went ahead and created an entry for the Honor Bound series. Hope you enjoy it, and feel free to edit or correct it. Alparrott (talk) 23:31, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Recurring themes and phrases
One amusing aspect for avid readers of Griffin are the number of recurring themes and phrases. There are items that seem to pop up again and again. A few that come to mind:

a) The phrase "In Vino Veritas?" b) Female characters described as "sounding like Katherine Hepburn" (Charity Hoche and the Dar Es Salam CIA station chief in "Special Ops" leap to mind) c) The frequent appearance of Scotch whiskey (most often "Famous Grouse", with "pinch bottle Haig & Haig" also making appearances). d) Fabulously wealthy main characters (Craig Lowell, Pick Pickering, Charlie Castillo, Clete Frade) e) Female characters finding a plot device that gets them from the states to wherever their husbands/boyfriends are carrying out their missions (examples include Marjorie Bellmon & Ursula Craig going to Africa in "Special Ops" and Charity Hoche and Ann Chambers going to England in the "Men at War" series) f) The frequent appearances of places where Mr. Griffin lives/has lived (Philadelphia, Marburg, Buenos Aires, Fort Rucker) g) Main characters being from small, blue collar steel towns in Pennsylvania (Ken McCoy in "The Corps" books, and "Mac" Mac Millian in the "Brotherhood of War" series). h) The retelling of the Wendell Fertig story EddieAlbania (talk) 23:50, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Christina's question
There were more books in the Christina series credited to St James. Did Butterworth only write the one? TREK philer  any time you're ready, Uhura  22:40, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Original research
I added an Original Research Subsection tag, because there are no references at all to the facts in the first two paragraphs. For example the claim that his experiences in Germany, meeting with former army officers, led to the creation of the character Oberst Graf von Greiffenberg, is unreferenced, which makes it seem like original research. There needs to be some references for this section. Nick Beeson (talk) 12:20, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

Needs references
There are not many references, and two of them are to his web site, which is dubious. Usually such references are only for quotes. The person's own website is the best source of attributable quotes. But that is not the case here, where the only quote attributed to Griffen is referenced to a independent reliable source. In fact, Reference 1, which is to his website, does not contain the information in the article that it references. Someone with a better knowledge of Griffen, please improve the references. Thanks, Nick Beeson (talk) 12:20, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

Helicopter controls;
The collective control is to the left of the pilots The ciclic control is between the pilots legs. 2600:8801:3900:C00:E16F:3E03:CA23:2646 (talk) 01:35, 19 November 2022 (UTC)
 * How is this intended to relate to this article? Please see WP:TPG. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 03:04, 19 November 2022 (UTC)