Gustav Hasford

Gustav Hasford (November 28, 1947 – January 29, 1993) was an American journalist, novelist, and poet. His semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers was the basis of the film Full Metal Jacket. He was also a United States Marine Corps veteran, who served during the Vietnam War.

Early life
Born in Russellville, Alabama, Hasford joined the United States Marine Corps in 1967 and served as a combat correspondent during the Vietnam War. As a military journalist, he wrote stories for Sea Tiger, Pacific Stars and Stripes, and Leatherneck Magazine.

Early literary career
Hasford associated with various science fiction writers of the 1970s (including Arthur Byron Cover and David J. Skal), had works published in magazines and anthologies such as Space and Time and Damon Knight's Orbit series, and briefly shared an apartment with author Harlan Ellison. He also published the poem, "Bedtime Story", in a 1972 edition of Winning Hearts and Minds published by 1st Casualty Press, the first anthology of writing about the war by the veterans themselves. (The poem was reprinted in Carrying the Darkness in 1985.)

First novel and film
In 1978, Hasford attended the Milford Writer's Workshop and met veteran science fiction author Frederik Pohl, who was then an editor at Bantam Books. At Pohl's suggestion, Hasford submitted The Short-Timers, and Pohl promptly bought it for Bantam.

The Short-Timers became a best-seller and was adapted into the 1987 feature film Full Metal Jacket, directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay was written by Hasford, Kubrick, and screenwriter Michael Herr, and was nominated for an Academy Award. Hasford's actual contributions were a subject of dispute among the three and ultimately Hasford chose to skip the Oscar ceremonies.

Library books theft charges
In 1988, shortly before the Oscar ceremony, Hasford was charged with theft after campus police from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, found nearly 10,000 library books in his rented storage locker. At that time, he had 87 overdue books and five years of the magazine Civil War Times checked out from the Cal Poly-SLO library; the materials were valued at over $2,000.

Hasford's book collection included books borrowed (and never returned) from dozens of libraries across the United States, and from libraries in the United Kingdom and Australia. Others were allegedly taken from the homes of acquaintances. Among them were 19th-century books on Edgar Allan Poe and the American Civil War. He had obtained borrowing privileges at Cal Poly-SLO as a California resident, but submitted a false address and Social Security number. In 1985, he had borrowed 98 books from the Sacramento, California public library, and was wanted for grand theft there.

Hasford initially denied the charges, but eventually admitted possession of several hundred stolen books, and pled Nolo contendere ("no contest") to possession of stolen property. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment (of which he served three months), and promised to pay restitution from the royalties for his future works.

Hasford claimed that he wanted the books to research a never-published book on the Civil War. He described his difficulties as "a vicious attack launched against me by Moral Majority fanatics backed up by the full power of the Fascist State."

Second and third novels
In 1990, he published a second novel, The Phantom Blooper, a sequel to The Short-Timers. Hasford's final novel was A Gypsy Good Time, a detective story set in Los Angeles. It was published in 1992, and received little notice.

Death
Hasford, suffering from diabetes, moved to the Greek island of Aegina and died there of heart failure on 29 January 1993.

Books

 * The Short-Timers (1979) ISBN 0-553-23945-7
 * The Phantom Blooper (1990) ISBN 0-553-05718-9
 * A Gypsy Good Time (1992) ISBN 0-671-72917-9