Just, Ward

Just, Ward,

1935–, American writer, b. Michigan City, Ind. Just was a correspondent (1959–69) for Newsweek magazine and the Washington Post, covering Washington politics and the Vietnam War, during which he was severely wounded. His To What End? (1968) is an analytical appraisal of the war; his Military Men (1970), a portrait of the post-Vietnam Army. He published his first novel in 1970, and is particularly celebrated for his knowing and often cynical tales of Washington, the public and private lives of its political practitioners, and the way that power influences conduct. Just began his political chronicles with the short stories of The Congressman Who Loved Flaubert (1973) and followed it with such novels as In the City of Fear (1982), Jack Gance (1989), Echo House (1997), and Exiles in the Garden (2009). His nearly 20 novels also include accounts of Americans abroad, such as American Romantic (2014), the story of a diplomat's life; a Vietnam tale, A Dangerous Friend (1999); and Midwestern stories, from the multigeneration saga of A Family Trust (1998) to the coming-of-age stories of An Unfinished Season (2004) and Rodin's Debutante (2011). Just also has written a play, Lowell Limpett (2001).