Michael Herr

Michael David Herr (April 13, 1940 – June 23, 2016) was an American writer and war correspondent, known as the author of '' Dispatches'' (1977), a memoir of his time as a correspondent for ''Esquire'' (1967–1969) during the Vietnam War. The book was called "the best book to have been written about the Vietnam War" by fellow author C.D.B. Bryan in his review for ''The New York Times Book Review''. Novelist John le Carré called it "the best book I have ever read on men and war in our time."

Life and career

Herr was born in Lexington, Kentucky, the son of a jeweler, and grew up in Syracuse, New York. His family was Jewish. After working with ''Esquire'' in the 1960s, from 1971 to 1975 he published nothing. Then, in 1977, he went on the road with rock and roller Ted Nugent and wrote about the experience in a 1978 cover story for '' Crawdaddy'' magazine. Also in 1977, he published ''Dispatches'', upon which his reputation mostly rests.

Herr was credited in the film for writing the narration for Francis Ford Coppola's 1997 film '' The Rainmaker''.
He had previously contributed to the narration for Coppola's 1979 film ''Apocalypse Now''. He co-wrote the screenplay for the film '' Full Metal Jacket'' (1987) with director Stanley Kubrick and author Gustav Hasford. That film was based on Hasford's novel '' The Short-Timers'' and the screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award. Herr collaborated with Richard Stanley in writing the original screenplay for the 1996 film '' The Island of Dr. Moreau'' based on the H.G. Wells novel of the same name. However, Stanley claims the subsequent rewrites cost Herr his writing credit, omitting most of the material created by the two writers.

Herr wrote a pair of articles for '' Vanity Fair'' about Stanley Kubrick, which were later incorporated into the short book ''Kubrick'' (2000), a personal biography of the director. He declined to edit the script of Kubrick's last film ''Eyes Wide Shut'' (1999).

Herr lived with his wife Valerie in Delhi, New York, until his death on June 23, 2016, at the age of 76.

Publications

* '' Dispatches'' (1977)
* ''The Big Room: Forty-Eight Portraits from the Golden Age'' (1987) (with Guy Peellaert) (stories about Hollywood personalities including Judy Garland, Howard Hughes, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Walter Winchell)
* ''Walter Winchell: A Novel'' (1990) ( biographical novel about the newsman Walter Winchell)
* ''Kubrick'' (Grove, 2000) (based on essay for ''Vanity Fair'')

References

External links

*
A draft of The Island of Dr Moreau screenplay, dated April 26th, 1994
*. Scene taken from the documentary First Kill about Herr's book ''Dispatches''.
Article about Herr in Columbia Journalism Review

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herr, Michael
1940 births
2016 deaths
writers from Lexington, Kentucky
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
20th-century American male writers
American male non-fiction writers
American male screenwriters
American war correspondents of the Vietnam War
Jewish American journalists
Journalists from New York (state)
Nottingham High School (New York) alumni
American postmodern writers
Screenwriters from New York (state)
Writers from Syracuse, New York
21st-century American Jews