C.S. Forester...how he came up with Hornblower..
There is the original Hornblower made around 1954 and then there is an A&E production from a few years back. The A&E set is excellent and comes in about 6 episodes. I have it on DVD. It follows the original C.S. Forrester pretty close. If you like to read start with volume one and finish up with Vol. 13. Also by Forrester the African Queen, Academy award for Bogie, and The Gun which movie version was tiltled The Pride and the Passion with Carey Grant, Frank Sinatra, Sofia Loren, Anthony Quiinn. Great Adventure. Sorry I'm a movie nut!:cussing: Fair Winds...
credit to Amazon.com writer's biography
"C. S. Forester (1899-1966) wrote several novels with military and naval themes, including The African Queen, The Barbary Pirates, The General, The Good Shepherd, The Gun, The Last Nine Days of the "Bismarck," and Rifleman Dodd. But Forester is best known as the creator of Horatio Hornblower, a British naval genius of the Napoleonic era, whose exploits and adventures on the high seas Forester chronicled in a series of eleven acclaimed historical novels. Over the years Hornblower has proved to be one of the most beloved and enduring fictional heroes in English literature, his popularity rivaled only by Sherlock Holmes.
Born Cecil Louis Troughton Smith in Cairo, Egypt, Forester grew up in London. At the start of World War II he traveled on behalf of the British government to America, where he produced propaganda encouraging the United States to remain on Britain's side. After the War, Forester remained in America and made Berkeley, California, his home.
The character of Horatio Hornblower was born after Forester was called to Hollywood to write a pirate film. While the script was being drafted, another studio released Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn, based on the same historical incidents about which Forester was writing. Rather than seek another movie project, and
to avoid an impending paternity suit, Forester jumped aboard a freighter bound for England. By the end of the voyage he had outlined Beat to the Quarters, which introduced the now legendary character Hornblower, Bush, and Lady Barbara.
Forester died in 1966 while working on Hornblower During the Crisis. "
BTW, I just ordered the A&E series "collectors edition" ... can't wait!
