He was the author with Hall of The Mutiny on the Bounty among other books. The Nordhoff-Hall book was the source for the 1935 movie of the same name as well as two later versions. Subsequent authors have published a different, well-researched view of the actual events of the mutiny, in which the mutiny results not from maltreatment by Captain Bligh but from the lure of South Pacific life for the ship's crew.
Charles Nordhoff's father was Walter Nordhoff, author of The Journey of the Flame penned under the name "Antonio de Fierro Blanco".
Charles Bernard Nordhoff's grandfather was Charles Nordhoff, also an author.
Nordhoff is the namesake of a street in the San Fernando Valley