Herman Wouk, whose stellar literary career extended past his 100th year thanks to page-turners like Marjorie Morningstar, Youngblood Hawke, The Caine Mutiny, and WWII epics The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, died May 17 at his home in Palm Springs, CA. He was 103. His death, just 10 days before his 104th birthday, was confirmed by his literary agent, Amy Rennert. She said he had been working on another book when he died, the subject of which he had not yet told her, according to an obituary in The New York Times.

His critics only grudgingly acknowledged his narrative skill, yet his writing enthralled millions of readers in search of “a good story, snappy dialogue and stirring events, rendered with a documentarian’s sense of authenticity and detail,” The New York Times said.

On the question of his reputation, Mr. Wouk took a philosophical line. “In the long run, justice is done,” he told Writer’s Digest in 1966. “In the short run, geniuses, minor writers and mountebanks alike take their chance. Imaginative writing is a wonderful way of life, and no man who can live by it should ask for more.”