C. S. Forester
C. S. Forester is the pen name of Cecil Smith (August 27 1899 - April 2, 1966), an English novelist whose rose to fame with tales of adventure with military themes, notably the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series (being filmed with Ioan Gruffudd as Horatio Hornblower) about naval warfare during the Napoleonic era and The African Queen (filmed in 1951 by John Huston).
Forester had a complicated early life, including imaginary parents and a secret marriage. During World War II he moved to the United States to write propaganda to help get that country enter the war on the Allied side, and eventually settled in Berkeley, California. He was married twice, and had two sons.
The popularity of the Hornblower series, built around a central character who was heroic but not too heroic, has continued to grow over time. It is perhaps rivalled only by the much later Aubrey–Maturin series of seafaring novels by Patrick O'Brian.
The original conception of the popular American television series Star Trek was based in large measure on the Hornblower books, and was pitched as such to NBC television by creator Gene Roddenberry.
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