Gustav Hasford

Hasford's second novel, published in 1990, was a sequel to The Short-Timers titled The Phantom Blooper. It detailed Private Joker's transformation after living in a Vietnamese village. Hasford's final novel, A Gypsy Good Time, was a dialogue-rich detective story.

A voracious reader and bibliophile, he was sentenced to six months in jail in 1988 for stealing 748 books from nine libraries throughout the country.

He collaborated with Stanley Kubrick for three years on the screenplay for Full Metal Jacket (1987), which is based on his 1979 novel "The Short-Timers." Hasford met Kubrick in person only once, and during dinner, Kubrick said to co-screenwriter Michael Herr "I can't deal with this man.".

His sequel to "The Short-Timers" (1979), "The Phantom Blooper", was published in 1990. Though his two war novels, particularly his first, are considered classics of Vietnam War-era fiction, neither book currently is in print.

He married Charlene Broock in September 1978. In his 1979 novel "The Short-Timers", Leonard ("Private Pyle") names his M-14 rifle "Charlene".

As a struggling writer, he associated with various 1970s science fiction writers, and roomed with Harlan Ellison for a time.

He joined the Marines right out of school in 1967 and used his experiences as a Combat Correspondent in Vietnam to write his first novel, The Short-Timers, which Stanley Kubrick turned into Full Metal Jacket (1987).

Gustav Hasford was born in 1947, in Russellville, Alabama.