William Brinkley

William Clark Brinkley (September 10, 1917 – November 22, 1993) was an American writer and journalist, best known for his novels Don't Go Near the Water (1956), which Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer adapted to an eponymous 1957 film, and The Last Ship (1988), which TNT adapted as a television series. Brinkley was born in Custer City, Oklahoma on September 10, 1917, the son of Daniel Squire Brinkley, a Baptist minister. The youngest of five children, Brinkley graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Oklahoma in 1940. Brinkley was a commissioned officer in the United States Navy during World War II. He served in Europe and the Pacific, primarily in public relations duties. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 1940, Brinkley worked for The Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Afterwards, he was a reporter for The Washington Post from 1941 to 1942 and from 1949 to 1951. In the latter period, he wrote an article about an exorcism that later became the basis of William Peter Blatty's bestselling novel The Exorcist (1971). Brinkley was also a staff writer, correspondent, and assistant editor for Life magazine from 1951 to 1958, and a member of the National Press Club until his death in 1993. After his tenure as an officer in the U.S. Navy, Brinkley wrote and published his first novel, Quicksand (1948). In 1954, Brinkley published his only non-fiction book, The Deliverance of Sister Cecelia, a biography of a Czechoslovakian nun based on her memoirs as recited to him. The novel was later adapted into a 1955 episode of Climax!. In 1956, he released 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 was adapted into film by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as Don't Go Near the Water (1957), which was released in theaters across the United States and became both a critical and commercial success. In 1961, Brinkley published The Fun House, a comedy novel set in the offices of a picture magazine similar to Life.