Mac Hyman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about a novelist. For the mathematician, see James (Mac) Hyman.
Mac Hyman (1923-1963) was the author of the best-selling comic novel No Time for Sergeants, which was adapted into a popular Broadway play and a motion picture.
Hyman was born on August 25, 1923 in Cordele, Georgia. He attended Duke University starting in 1941, interrupting his studies to serve in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Hyman finally graduated from Duke in 1947. He drew heavily on his personal experiences to create No Time for Sergeants, the misadventures of a country bumpkin draftee named Will Stockdale. Several publishers rejected the manuscript before it was finally accepted by Random House and published in 1954. The popularity of the book resulted in a Broadway show and a film, which launched the career of Andy Griffith.
Hyman had published just three short stories and was struggling with his second novel when he died of a heart attack in 1963, just one month before his fortieth birthday. That second novel, Take Now Thy Son, and a collection of Hyman's letters entitled Love, Boy: The Letters of Mac Hyman were both published after his death.
Hyman had three children; his daughter Gwyn Hyman Rubio is the author of Icy Sparks.
