Steven Pressfield
Personal Information
Description
I was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1943 to a Navy father and mother. I graduated from Duke University in 1965. In January of 1966, when I was on the bus leaving Parris Island as a freshly-minted Marine, I looked back and thought there was at least one good thing about this departure. "No matter what happens to me for the rest of my life, no one can ever send me back to this freakin' place again." Forty years later, to my surprise and gratification, I am far more closely bound to the young men of the Marine Corps and to all other dirt-eating, ground-pounding outfits than I could ever have imagined. GATES OF FIRE is one reason. Dog-eared paperbacks of this tale of the ancient Spartans have circulated throughout platoons of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since the first days of the invasions. E-mails come in by hundreds. GATES OF FIRE is on the Commandant of the Marine Corps' Reading list. It is taught at West Point and Annapolis and at the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico. TIDES OF WAR is on the curriculum of the Naval War College. From 2nd Battalion/6th Marines, which calls itself "the Spartans," to ODA 316 of the Special Forces, whose forearms are tattooed with the lambda of Lakedaemon, today's young warriors find a bond to their ancient precursors in the historical narratives of these novels. My struggles to earn a living as a writer (it took seventeen years to get the first paycheck) are detailed in my 2002 book, THE WAR OF ART. I have worked as an advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, tractor-trailer driver, bartender, oilfield roustabout and attendant in a mental hospital. I have picked fruit in Washington state and written screenplays in Tinseltown. With the publication of THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE in 1995, I became a writer of books once and for all. My writing philosophy is, not surprisingly, a kind of warrior code — internal rather than external — in which the enemy is identified as those forms of self-sabotage that I have labeled "Resistance" with a capital R (in THE WAR OF ART) and the technique for combatting these foes can be described as "turning pro." I believe in previous lives. I believe in the Muse. I believe that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled into material being by their own imperative to be born, via the offices of those willing servants of discipline, imagination and inspiration, whom we call artists. My conception of the artist's role is a combination of reverence for the unknowable nature of "where it all comes from" and a no-nonsense, blue-collar demystification of the process by which this mystery is approached. In other words, a paradox. There's a recurring character in my books named Telamon, a mercenary of ancient days. Telamon doesn't say much. He rarely gets hurt or wounded. And he never seems to age. His view of the profession of arms is a lot like my conception of art and the artist: "It is one thing to study war, and another to live the warrior's life."
Books
Sparta
"[After four years in Iraq, Conrad Farrell returns to Katonah, New York], and he's beginning to learn that something has changed in his landscape. Something has gone wrong, though things should be fine: he hasn't been shot or wounded; he's never had psychological troubles. But as he attempts to reconnect with his family and his girlfriend and to find his footing in the civilian world, he learns how hard it is to return to the people and places he used to love"--Dust jacket flap.
Gates of fire
Godine 480.pr.Kr. kod Termopila (Vruća vrata) na sjeveru Grčke odigrala se najveličanstvenija bitka za slobodu tijekom čitave povijesti čovječanstva. U uskom planinskom prolazu iznad Egejskog mora sukobilo se 300 spartanskih vitezova s nadmoćnim snagama perzijskog kralja Kserksa. Od samog početka bilo je jasno da će Spartanci izgubiti bitku. Zašto su ipak bili spremni poginuti? Priča zarobljenog roba Kseona otkrit će tajnu tog podviga i poslati svima poruku o neuništivom dostojanstvu jednog naroda. Vatrena vrata epski su roman naturalističnih prizora bitaka zbog čije će vam se uvjerljivosti činiti da gledate raskošni holivudski film. (source: back-cover)
Polowanie na Rommla
Written as the memoir of a British lieutenant, and based on real-life events, this historically and psychologically rich thriller perfectly captures the tension as a team of soldiers in Egypt during World War II attempt to assassinate German Field Marshall Rommel, the infamous "Desert Fox."
The lion's gate
"We are being bullied, my father said, and the only way to handle a bully is to punch him in the face. "What would you do?" I asked. "Strike now. As soon as possible. Meet the enemy straight-up and destroy him. There is no other way." -YAEL DAYAN, daughter of Moshe Dayan, to Steven Pressfield June 5, 1967. The nineteen-year-old state of Israel is surrounded by enemies who want nothing less than her utter extinction. The Soviet-equipped Egyptian Army has massed a thousand tanks on the nation's southern border. Syrian heavy guns are shelling her from the north. To the East, Jordan and Iraq are moving mechanized brigades and fighter squadrons into position to attack. Egypt's President Nasser has declared that the Arab force's objective is "the destruction of Israel." The rest of the world turns a blind eye to the new nation's desperate peril. June 10, 1967. The Arab armies have been routed, ground divisions wiped out, air forces totally destroyed. Israel's citizen-soldiers have seized the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan. The land under Israeli control has tripled. Her charismatic defense minister, Moshe Dayan, has entered the Lion's Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem to stand with the paratroopers who have liberated Judaism's holiest site-the Western Wall, part of the ruins of Solomon's temple, which has not been in Jewish hands for nineteen hundred years. It is one of the most unlikely and astonishing military victories in history. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with veterans of the war-fighter and helicopter pilots, tank commanders and Recon soldiers, paratroopers, as well as women soldiers, wives, and others-bestselling author Steven Pressfield tells the story of the Six Day War as you've never experienced it before: in the voices of the young men and women who battled not only for their lives but for the survival of a Jewish state, and for the dreams of their ancestors. By turns inspiring, thrilling, and heartbreaking, The Lion's Gate is both a true tale of military courage under fire and a journey into the heart of what it means to fight for one's people"-- "June 5, 1967. The fearsome, Soviet-equipped Egyptian Army and its 1000 tanks are massed on Israel's southern border. Meanwhile, the Syrian Army is shelling the much smaller nation from the north. And to the east, Jordan and Iraq are moving brigades and fighter squadrons into position to attack. Egypt's President Nasser has declared that the Arab world's goal is no less than "the destruction of Israel." June 10, 1967. The combined Arab armies are in ruins, their air forces totally destroyed. Israel's citizen-soldiers have seized the Gaza Strip and the entire Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan. The land under Israeli control has tripled. The charismatic, eye-patch wearing Defense Minister Moshe Dayan has barreled through the Lion's Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, meeting up with a gang of paratroopers who have already raised the blue and white flag that frames the Star of David. How on earth did this happen? Only Steven Pressfield could get the real story from the fighter jocks in the air, the tank commanders through the sand, and the infantrymen on the ground. Through more than 300 hours of interviews conducted in Israel, he has written a gripping chronicle of the six days that changed the Middle East forever. He also captures the universal experience of individual soldiers compelled to stare down mortal fear and move headlong into a firestorm"--
Virtues of War
I have always been a soldier. I have known no other life. So begins Alexander's extraordinary confession on the eve of his greatest crisis of leadership. By turns heroic and calculating, compassionate and utterly merciless, Alexander recounts with a warrior's unflinching eye for detail the blood, the terror, and the tactics of his greatest battlefield victories. Whether surviving his father's brutal assassination, presiding over a massacre, or weeping at the death of a beloved comrade-in-arms, Alexander never denies the hard realities of the code by which he lives: the virtues of war. But as much as he was feared by his enemies, he was loved and revered by his friends, his generals, and the men who followed him into battle. Often outnumbered, never outfought, Alexander conquered every enemy the world stood against him--but the one he never saw coming. . . .From the Trade Paperback edition.
The legend of Bagger Vance
The protagonist of this metaphysical fable is Rannulph Junah, Southern aristocrat and World War I hero. In a tournament in Savannah, he defeats two golf pros by following the teachings of his guru, Bagger Vance, a black mystic serving as his caddie.
The profession
In a near-future world in which governments and corporations are forced to hire cutting-edge mercenary armies to protect their wealth, the globe's largest private military launches a campaign to take over the United States.
Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t
"Recognizing this painful truth is the first step in the writer's transformation from amateur to professional" --Page of cover.
The virtues of war
Alexander the Great (356 to 323 B.C.) ascended to the throne of Macedon at the age of twenty. He fought his greatest battles, including the conquest of the mighty Persian Empire, before he was twenty five and died at the age of thirty three, still undefeated by any enemy. His reputation as a supreme warrior and leader of men is unsurpassed in the annals of history. In the brilliantly imagined first person voice of Alexander the Great, acclaimed novelist Steven Pressfield brings to life his epic battles, his unerring command of his forces, and the passions and ambitions that drove him. A full blooded, multidimensional portrait, THE VIRTUES OF WAR captures Alexander's complex character. Alexander was a fearless commander who moved with such daring and speed that no army could withstand him; a driven leader whose ambitions knew no limits; and a man with boundless compassion for his troops, deep friendships with his generals, and profound respect for his enemies. Yet in the end, his noble qualities were subsumed by his insatiable lust for glory. No one writes about battles as brilliantly as Pressfield, and in THE VIRTUES OF WAR he vividly describes the seminal conflicts of Alexander's career, revealing the tactics behind them and capturing the blood, heat, and terror of the battlefield. He follows Alexander's forces as they faced and defeated armies that far outnumbered them; delivers a thrilling frontline report from Gaugamela, the scene of Alexander's greatest victory; and, in a memorable vignette, shows the great conqueror finally halted, not by an enemy but by the refusal of his worn out troops to march any farther. Epic in scope and magisterial in tone, THE VIRTUES OF WAR is sure to take its place among the classics of historical fiction.
Do the work!
"This book is designed to coach you through a project (a book, a ballet, a new business venture, a philanthropic enterprise) from conception to finished product, seeing it from the point of view of Resistance."--P. .
The Afghan Campaign
2,300 years ago an unbeaten army of the West invaded the homeland of a fierce Eastern tribal foe. This is one soldier's story . . .The bestselling novelist of ancient warfare returns with a riveting historical novel that re-creates Alexander the Great's invasion of the Afghan kingdoms in 330 b.c.In a story that might have been ripped from today's combat dispatches, Steven Pressfield brings to life the confrontation between an invading Western army and fierce Eastern warriors determined at all costs to defend their homeland. Narrated by an infantryman in Alexander's army, The Afghan Campaign explores the challenges, both military and moral, that Alexander and his soldiers face as they embark on a new type of war and are forced to adapt to the methods of a ruthless foe that employs terror and insurgent tactics. An edge-of-your-seat adventure, The Afghan Campaign once again demonstrates Pressfield's profound understanding of the hopes and desperation of men in battle and of the historical realities that continue to influence our world.