Honoring Marines With Scholarships

Honoring Marines With Scholarships by Mike Vilensky, Wall Street Journal.

Owen West is a 6-foot-4 former Marine, a two-time novelist with a third book out this month and a managing director at Goldman Sachs…

"I have a very low stress level," he continued, double-fisting venti lattes. "Because at some point I became comfortable with failure. I've failed so many times that I've come to believe if I'm not failing regularly, I'm either not trying, or I'm not reaching high enough."

You wouldn't know it from his resume (Harvard College, Stanford Business School), his demeanor ("We're waiting for Godot," he joked, as a reporter awaited an iced coffee), his sculpted physique ("I binge on working out") or his literary career. "Snake Eaters: An Unlikely Band of Brothers and the Battle for the Soul of Iraq," Mr. West's third book, which is nonfiction, is out this month in hardcover, published by Simon & Schuster. The net proceeds of the book will benefit the Marine Corp Scholarship Foundation. Mr. West has already donated his $100,000 book advance to the fund, which provides for education scholarships for the children of Marines. He hopes to raise more than $300,000…

See SWJ Editor Peter Munson’s review of Owen West’s “The Snake Eaters” and his Q&A with Owen.