A connection between three famous writers has been found according to an NIU professor.

English professor Keith Gandal has recently published a book that allows readers to understand history and the similar military experiences between Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The book, “The Gun and the Pen: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner and the Fiction of Mobilization,” focuses on the three authors’ experiences in military, frustration with the army in World War I and the influence it had on their novels.

Gandal said the writers weren’t traumatized by the horrors of war, but by the inability to experience these events.

Gandal said he chose these three writers because they wrote about the war but didn’t actually fight in it. He said the writers saw merit-based personnel procedures change for all recruits with the exception of blacks during the World War I era.

“These men missed out on the opportunity to be the brave soldiers and important officers,” Gandal said. “And they were resentful; they scapegoated ethnic Americans whom they saw getting the positions they wanted. That’s why Gatsby, who makes the rank of major, is a German-American from a poor family.”

As a result, Gandal said the main characters in Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury” and Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” share similarities and are also involved in a love triangle.

Gandal said the love triangles involve a central Anglo-female and an Anglo-narrator, who wants the girl but cannot have her, and an outsider or ethnic American who gets the girl.

Gandal said he teaches these writers in class, which gave him the idea to conduct research and write the book.

Natalie Christensen, a junior English major, has taken Gandal’s courses and read chapters of new the book. She added that she would read the book to learn more about the writers’ histories.

“The critiques in his chapters brought so much interesting history that I had not known about from just reading books from Hemingway, Faulkner and Fitzgerald,” Christensen said. “I would definitely read Gandal’s book because he has done so much research and from what I have already read his book seems very interesting.”

Gandal began researching this book in 1983, has been teaching at NIU since 2000, and has written several other books.