Marvin Wolf
| Marvin J. Wolf enlisted at age 17 in 1959, served three years in infantry platoons and as a drill instructor, and took discharge as a three-striper. Not quite three years later he saw Larry Burrough’s “Yankee Papa 13” spread in LIFE and decided he wanted to be a photojournalist. In March 1965 he re-enlisted as as a slick-sleeve grunt and soon bullshat his way into the then small and elite PIO shop by pretending to be a photographer. |
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When this didn’t get anyone killed, he was taught to report and write news copy. To meet media interest in the fast-moving, ass-kicking Air Cav, the PIO shop doubled, tripled, then doubled again. By May 1966 Wolf was back to buck sergeant, supervising a small team of reporters and escorting such famed visitors as John Steinbeck, Winston Churchill II and S.L.A. Marshall. In November 1966 Wolf was commissioned a 2LT, infantry, and rotated Stateside.
Wolf faked it through a succession of Information jobs, including IO of the Seventh Infantry Division (1968, in the R.O.K.) After transferring to the Signal Corps, he served in Germany and then in Korea again before resigning his commission in 1974.
He worked briefly as a business communicator, then became a freelance photojournalist and magazine writer. He also put in a couple of years part-time at various advertising agencies. Wolf’s first nonfiction book, The Japanese Conspiracy, appeared in 1983, followed by a dozen more, including the best-sellers Fallen Angels and Where White Men Fear To Tread. His magazine articles and photographs have appeared in hundreds of periodicals around the world; extended portions of The Japanese Conspiracy were read verbatim into the Congressional Record.
Wolf helped start and later served four terms as president of Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC), a support, professional development and service organization. He has lectured widely, if insipidly, on writing and the writing life. After covering a wall with writing and service awards, early this year Wolf began teaching magazine writing at Southern California’s Glendale Community College.
In 2001, Wolf turned to screenwriting. His first produced film was “Ladies Night.” Based on a chapter in one of his early books, it aired on the USA Cable Network in February 2005.
Wolf plans to continue writing movies and books and the occasional magazine article, as well as teaching, until his warranty expires.