Michael Herr is an American writer and former war correspondent, best known as the author of Dispatches, a memoir of his time as a correspondent for Esquire magazine during the Vietnam War. The book was called the best "to have been written about the Vietnam War" by The New York Times Book Review; novelist John le Carr� called it "the best book I have ever read on men and war in our time." Herr later was credited with pioneering the literary genre of the nonfiction novel, along with authors such as Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, and Tom Wolfe. From 1971 to 1975 he produced no publications. In 1977 he went on the road with rock & roller Ted Nugent and wrote about the experience in a 1978 cover story for Crawdaddy magazine. Herr co-wrote the screenplay for Full Metal Jacket with his close friend director Stanley Kubrick and author Gustav Hasford. The film was based on Hasford's novel The Short-Timers and the screenplay was nominated for an Academy award. He also contributed to the narration for Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. He collaborated with Richard Stanley in writing the original screenplay for the 1996 adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel, The Island of Dr. Moreau. 

April 13th, 1940 in New York City  /  Died:   Jun 23rd, 2016 - aged 76