Ward Just
Ward Just was an influential American author and journalist, born on September 5, 1935, in Michigan City, Indiana. He initially pursued a career in journalism, working for his family’s newspaper before moving on to write for prominent publications like Newsweek and the Washington Post. His reporting covered significant global events, including the Vietnam War, where he earned a reputation for insightful and courageous journalism, even sustaining injuries during his service.
Transitioning to fiction at thirty-four, Just focused on political themes, creating nuanced narratives about politicians and the moral complexities of public life. Over the course of his literary career, he published nearly twenty novels, including critically acclaimed works like *Echo House* and *A Dangerous Friend*. His storytelling often examined the conflicts between ideals and practicalities, reflecting on the human condition in the face of political challenges. Just’s last novel, *The Eastern Shore*, was published in 2016, and he continued to explore deep moral questions until his passing on December 19, 2019. His legacy lies in his ability to articulate the intricate relationship between power and human behavior through a lens of empathy and complexity.
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Subject Terms
Ward Just
- Born: September 5, 1935
- Birthplace: Michigan City, Indiana
- Died: December 19, 2019
- Place of death: Plymouth, Masssachusetts
Biography
Ward Just was born on September 5, 1935, in Michigan City, Indiana, a small town near Waukegan, Illinois, where for three generations Just’s family published the Waukegan News-Sun. After attending Trinity College, Just was certain journalism would be his calling, although he was attracted to fiction. He worked for his family’s newspaper from 1957 to 1959. Determined to separate himself from the shadow of his family, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, to write for Newsweek, eventually moving to the magazine’s parent newspaper, the Washington Post, where he was posted to numerous international hot spots, most notably Cyprus during its vicious civil war in 1963. He also covered the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1967, establishing a reputation for insightful reporting from difficult combat positions. When he was wounded by grenade shrapnel in June 1966, while on patrol with a reconnaissance platoon from the 101st Airborne Division, he refused to be airlifted until the eight soldiers with him had been carried to safety.
Returning stateside, Just continued to cover national politics for the Washington Post, but he understood that his combat experience had taught him the limits of objective reporting. When he turned to fiction at the age of thirty-four, he drew on what he knew best—the lives of politicians, diplomats, bureaucrats, power brokers, and Washington insiders. Before Just began writing, American literature had produced few examples of distinguished political fiction; the genre essentially consisted of period satires, melodramatic potboilers, scandalous roman à clefs, or clumsy propaganda. Beginning in 1970 and continuing through nearly twenty titles, Just investigated the consequences of political action and explored the complicated personalities of people who engage in public life where mishaps are inevitable and good intentions must be tested against practicalities. Like Henry James and John O’Hara—writers to whom he was often compared—Just’s political characters face ambiguous moral choices in which conscience and hubris conflict. His novels depict a complex morality. In Jack Gance (1989), for example, a savvy Chicago pollster becomes a politician and accepts the difficult necessity of compromise; Just chronicles his sellout to political interests with an unsettling sympathy.
In the 1990s, Just expanded his fictional perspective beyond Washington. He tackled European terrorism, the shattered idealism of Vietnam, the German struggle with Adolf Hitler’s legacy, and the shadowy political corruption of South America. His work continued to attract critical commendation. Echo House (1997), which traces three generations of a political family, was nominated for the National Book Award. A Dangerous Friend (1999), about a well-intentioned American political scientist in South Vietnam, won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize. An Unfinished Season (2005), in which Just returned to his Midwestern roots in relating the story of a copy boy at a Chicago newspaper during a heated labor strike in the late 1950s who falls in love with a fetching debutante, was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize. In a career given to defining the psychology of characters who passionately pursue the art of power, Just fashioned astringent morality plays that test rather than affirm ideals, record the world of politics and diplomacy with immediacy, and render those caught up in its processes without cynicism or disdain. Just's final novel was The Eastern Shore (2016), about a newspaperman whose revelation of another's secret has terrible, immediate repercussions.
Just was married three times, to Jean Ramsay, Anne Burling, and Sarah Catchpole. He had two daughters, Jennifer and Julie, by his first wife and a son, Ian, by his second wife. In later years Just settled on Martha's Vineyard off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He died of Lewy body dementia on December 19, 2019, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, at the age of eighty-four.
Bibliography
Just, Ward. “Getting to the Story.” Reporting America at War: An Oral History, compiled by Michelle Ferrari, Hyperion, 2003. WETA, www.pbs.org/weta/reportingamericaatwar/reporters/just/story.html. Accessed 6 July 2020.
Sanchez Olson, Yadira. “Ward Just, Noted Journalist and Author with Waukegan Roots, Dies.” Chicago Tribune, 23 Dec. 2019, www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/ct-lns-ward-just-news-sun-st-1223-20191222-gfqjodmmwjewxia46pcpmqifta-story.html. Accessed 6 July 2020.
Smith, Harrison. "Ward Just, Washington Post Reporter and Acclaimed Political Novelist, Dies at 84." The Washington Post, 20 Dec. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/ward-just-washington-post-reporter-and-acclaimed-political-novelist-dies-at-84/2019/12/20/803137a4-21b5-11ea-a153-dce4b94e4249‗story.html. Accessed 6 July 2020.
Stout, David. “Ward Just, 84, Dies; Ex-Journalist Found Larger Truths in Fiction.” The New York Times, 20 Dec. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/books/ward-just-dead.html. Accessed 7 Feb. 2020.