Goodbye to “Forrest Gump” father: Winston Groom was 77

Winston Groom, the American writer of the novel Forrest Gump, has died at 77 in Fairhope, Alabama. The mayor of the city, Karin Winson, confirmed this to CNN: The news made us very sad, Winston was an icon here. After graduating in 1965, Groom enlisted and remained in the military for four years, and also served in Vietnam. After returning home, he found a job as a reporter for the Washington Star before turning to novels. Forrest Gump the book that made him famous in the world, simple but extraordinary story of a sui generis hero – naive but determined, not very intelligent but very fast to run – destined to enter the collective imagination: also thanks to the film that was made from him. , directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks and winner of six Academy Awards.

Immediately after the film’s release in 1995, Groom released a sequel titled Gump and Co. In the United States he was also known for his non-fiction books, notably about the american civil war; Conversations with the Enemy, which reconstructed the experience of a soldier during the Vietnam conflict, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1984.