David Sherman (February 27, 1944 – November 16, 2022)^[1] was an American novelist who dealt overwhelmingly with military themes at the small-unit tactical level. His experiences as a United States Marine informed his writings.^[2]

Early life and education

Sherman was born in Niles, Ohio in 1958.^[1] He grew up in Kansas, Texas, New Jersey and Omaha, Nebraska, from where he joined the United States Marine Corps soon after turning 18. After his departure from the U.S. Marine Corps, he moved to Philadelphia where he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He had a brief stint as a sculptor, winning awards for his work.

Military career

David Sherman enlisted in the US Marine Corps directly out of high school. He went through Boot Camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California and Infantry Training Regiment at Camp San Onofre, a part of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. He was promoted to Private First Class (PFC) prior to reporting to his first duty station, the First Marine Brigade at Marine Corps Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii where he was assigned to third platoon, Lima Company, Third Battalion, Fourth Marines. While there he was promoted to Lance Corporal and rose from basic rifleman to fire team leader. Following that tour in the peace time infantry, he served as a military policeman at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. He was released from active duty and honorably discharged upon completion of his six years combined active and reserve service. He holds the Combat Action Ribbon, several unit citations, both US and Vietnamese, the Good Conduct Medal, and service and campaign medals.^{[citation needed]}

Writing career

Sherman began writing in 1983. His first book, Knives in the Night, was published in 1987 by the Ivy Book imprint of Ballantine Books as the first novel in Sherman's series, The Night Fighter. The series consists of six books, also including Main Force Assault (1987), Out of the Fire (1987), A Rock and a Hard Place (1988), A Nghu Night Falls (1988), and Charlie Don't Live Here Anymore (1989). In 1989, Sherman published There I Was: The War of Corporal Henry J Morris, USMC under Ivy Book.

Del Rey Books published Sherman's DemonTech series, which includes Onslaught (2002), Rally Point (2003), and Gulf Run (2004).

Altogether, as of June 2007, Sherman had published 26 novels, including 15 with his co-author, Dan Cragg.

Overview

Sherman said this of himself:

I began my writing career writing novels about US Marines fighting the war in Vietnam (I was one and I did). Today I'm writing novels about Marines fighting wars centuries in the future and in a world that never existed. Seems I've been typecast.

On October 24, 2008, Sherman was interviewed for Armed Forces Network (a network and website for US military personnel in Europe), and the interview was posted on their website. In the interview, he discusses Starfist, how the series came to be, and mentions that a motion picture screenplay of the first book, First to Fight, was being shopped around Hollywood. The screenplay was not written by either Sherman or his co-author Dan Cragg, but by Eric Bean, a screenwriter and a die hard fan of the Starfist series.

Literary themes

Sherman's fiction mostly dealt with military themes, in particular, those involving Marine enlisted men.