Marion Hargrove
Marion Hargrove was an American author and columnist, born in Mount Olive, North Carolina, who gained prominence for his humorous yet poignant depictions of military life during and after World War II. After graduating high school, he began his career with the Charlotte News and was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1941. While serving at Fort Bragg, he wrote a column chronicling his experiences as a reluctant soldier, which caught the attention of playwright Maxwell Anderson. This led to the publication of his bestselling book, *See Here, Private Hargrove*, in 1942, which humorously explored the day-to-day realities of army life and uplifted the spirits of those on the home front.
Hargrove's writing style often emphasized the less glamorous aspects of military service, a perspective he continued to share through contributions to *Yank Magazine* and *The New York Times Magazine*. Following his discharge in 1945, he became a public lecturer on military issues and wrote several novels, including *Something's Got to Give* and *The Girl He Left Behind*, which examined the challenges faced by soldiers transitioning to civilian life. His works often reflected the tension between individuality and the conformity demanded by military life. In the late 1950s, Hargrove expanded his career into television, writing for the Western series *Maverick* and various publications. His legacy lies in his ability to blend humor with critical commentary on military culture.
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Marion Hargrove
Writer
- Born: October 13, 1919
- Birthplace: Mount Olive, North Carolina
- Died: August 23, 2003
- Place of death: Long Beach, California
Biography
Born in Mount Olive, North Carolina, Marion Hargrove began working for the Charlotte News not long after leaving high school. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1941, and soon began contributing a column about humorous misadventures—casting himself as a bumbling and unwilling recruit—to his old paper.
During his time at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Hargrove met playwright Maxwell Anderson, who was researching a play he was writing on the military life. Anderson was impressed with Hargrove’s columns and forwarded them to the publisher Henry Holt and Company. The articles were converted into a book and in 1942 published as See Here, Private Hargrove. Although the book presents a tongue-in-cheek rendering of army life, it was nevertheless quite patriotic in its way, and lifted the spirits of the wartime audience. See Here, Private Hargrove became a best seller and was reprinted five times. It was later adapted to film, as was its sequel, What Next, Corporal Hargrove?
Hargrove was assigned by the Army to write for Yank magazine, and he also often contributed to The New York Times Magazine. In these and other periodicals, he strove to present not the heroic side of military life but rather the day-to-day reality of the soldier’s world. After his 1945 discharge, he became a regular lecturer on the military. He was not afraid to criticize the military structure, and was occasionally criticized for being sympathetic to communism, a charge that Hargrove vehemently denied.
Hargrove’s novel Something’s Got to Give was published in 1948 and dealt with the family and career problems a military man had both in trying to readjust to civilian life and in terms of mining his own experiences for his art. He also touched upon the friction between military and civilian life in the satirical The Girl He Left Behind, published in 1956. Like his earlier takes on military life, his later works often concerned the struggle between an individual’s need to maintain independence and the military’s need to create uniformity.
In the late 1950’s Hargrove began writing for the television Western Maverick and for various other Hollywood projects; he was also during this time a frequent contributor to such magazines as Life, Collier’s, Harper’s Magazine, and The Atlantic Monthly.