William Brinkley

William Clark "Bill" Brinkley (September 10, 1917 – November 22, 1993) was an American writer and journalist, best known for his 1988 novel, The Last Ship, and his 1956 novel, Don't Go Near the Water, which was later adapted to film in 1957 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as Don't Go Near the Water. The Last Ship is slated for a 2014 television adaptation.

Early life and education
Brinkley was born in Custer City, Oklahoma on September 10, 1917, the son of a minister. The youngest of five children, Brinkley attended the University of Oklahoma and graduated as a Phi Beta Kappa in 1940.

Naval service
Brinkley was a commissioned officer in the United States Navy during World War II, where he served in Europe and the Pacific, primarily in public relations duties.

Career
After graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 1940, Brinkley went on to work for The Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Afterwards, Brinkley was a reporter for The Washington Post from 1941 to 1942 and from 1949 to 1951. He was also a staff writer, correspondent and assistant editor and for Life magazine from 1951 to 1958. Brinkley was also a member of the National Press Club until his death in 1993.

In 1948, after his tenure as an officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Brinkley wrote and published his first novel, Quicksand, in 1948. In 1954, Brinkley wrote his only non-fiction book, The Deliverance of Sister Cecelia, a biography of a Slovakian nun based her memoirs as recited to him. The novel was later adapted into an episode of Climax! in 1955. In 1956, he went on to write the best-selling novel and perhaps his most prominent work, Don't Go Near the Water, a comedy about U.S. Navy sailors serving in the South Pacific during World War II. Don't Go Near the Water would later be adapted into film by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as Don't Go Near the Water. Don't Go Near the Water was released in theaters across the United States in 1957 and became both a critical and commercial success.

In 1961, Brinkley wrote and published The Fun House, a comedy novel set in the offices of a picture magazine, similar to that of Life. The following year, in 1962, Brinkley wrote and published the novel, The Two Susans, which was followed in 1966 by The Ninety and Nine, a novel detailing life on board a United States Navy LST operating in the Mediterranean Sea and at Anzio during World War II. In 1971, Brinkley moved to McAllen, Texas and would live there until his death in 1993. Throughout the 1970s, Brinkley only wrote one novel, Breakpoint, a novel about tennis, published in 1978.

Brinkley's 1978 novel about tennis, Breakpoint, was followed by Peeper, a comedy novel about a voyeur in the small Texas town of Martha, Texas, near the Rio Grande. Peeper was written by Brinkley and published in December 1981. In March 1988, Brinkley wrote and published his last work, The Last Ship, a post-apocalyptic fiction novel dealing with the sailors of the USS Nathan James (DDG-80), a fictional United States Navy guided missile destroyer, which survives a brief, full-scale global nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Later life and death
On November 22, 1993, after suffering from a major depressive disorder for over several years, Brinkley died by suicide at his home in McAllen, Texas, near the Gulf of Mexico, at the age of 76, from an overdose of barbiturates. He was survived by his wife, Jean Brinkley, along with his sister, Virginia McCabe, his brother, Paul Brinkley, and his stepson, David Shelander.