Fortunate Son

Winston Groom recalls being pretty satisfied with his 1986 novel, Forrest Gump. It was reviewed favorably by many literary critics and sold around 30,000 copies in hardcover.

By then, Groom was in his early forties and in the midst of creating a nice, steady writing career. After graduating from the University of Alabama, he had done a stint in the army and a tour in Vietnam. He’d worked in Washington, D.C., as a reporter for the Washington Star, covering the court system, and then quit that job to start writing books. He moved to New York City, where he haunted the literary scene, palling around with the likes of Kurt Vonnegut, George Plimpton, and Joseph Heller. He’d written three well-received novels (Better Times Than These, As Summers Die, and Only) and a nonfiction book about a POW in Vietnam that became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Forrest Gump, his funny-but-touching novel centered on a simpleminded man from Alabama, was another positive step in a budding literary career.

Then came July 6, 1994, when the film version of Gump—directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, and Gary Sinise—was released nationwide. It became an immediate hit, both culturally and commercially, winning six Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and pulling in and