Author Guide · War Reportage
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Michael Herr went to Vietnam in 1967 on an open-ended assignment for Esquire, with no deadline and no brief, and stayed about a year. It took him another decade to write the book. In between came years in which he published almost nothing and, by his own account, barely made a living. Dispatches appeared in 1977 and was immediately called the best book written about the war. He wrote three more, none of them like it, and then wrote for film instead. This guide covers all four books in order, the screenplays, and where to start.
By Lisanne Swart · 4 books · 2 screenplays · 1977–2000 · Updated September 2026
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Quick answer
Michael Herr wrote four books: Dispatches (1977), his account of the Vietnam War; The Big Room (1986), on Las Vegas, with paintings by Guy Peellaert; Walter Winchell: A Novel (1990); and Kubrick (2000), a short portrait of Stanley Kubrick. He also co-wrote the screenplays for Apocalypse Now (1979) and Full Metal Jacket (1987). Dispatches is the one to read, and for most readers the only one they will need.
Where to Start with Michael Herr
If you read only one
→ Dispatches (1977). For most readers it is also the only one.
If you love Kubrick
→ Kubrick (2000), under a hundred pages.
If you want the object
→ The Big Room (1986), for Guy Peellaert's paintings.
If you want the films instead
→ Apocalypse Now, then Full Metal Jacket.
If you want more writing like Dispatches
→ My list of the best gonzo journalism books, where Dispatches sits alongside Thompson and Wolfe.
All 4 Michael Herr Books, in Order
DispatchesStart here
The Vietnam War as Herr experienced it as a correspondent: the terror, the dark comedy, the rock and roll the soldiers played, the speed at which reality and unreality changed places. He built it from years of notes, and the prose is unlike anything written about war before it, fragmented and hallucinatory and completely honest about the correspondent's own fascination with violence. C. D. B. Bryan called it the best book written about Vietnam in The New York Times Book Review, and John le Carré called it the best book he had ever read on men and war.
Read it slowly, in daylight. It describes combat and its aftermath without any softening.
— LisanneThe Big Room
A collaboration with the Belgian artist Guy Peellaert, who painted the portraits while Herr wrote the text. Together they tell the founding myths of Las Vegas through the people who made it: entertainers, gamblers and gangsters, among them Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky. It is more art book than reportage, and it is the least known of his four.
Look for it second-hand as an object. The paintings are half the point, and they do not survive a cheap reprint.
— LisanneWalter Winchell: A Novel
Herr's only novel, about the gossip columnist and radio broadcaster who was, at his peak, one of the most powerful and most feared men in America. It began as a screenplay that was never filmed, and Herr published it in a hybrid form that keeps the screen directions: scenes, cuts and camera notes running alongside the prose.
A curiosity rather than a discovery. Read it if you are interested in Winchell or in the form, not as a way into Herr.
— LisanneKubrick
A short book about Stanley Kubrick, with whom Herr worked on Full Metal Jacket and who became a friend: long late-night phone calls over many years, recorded here in Herr's own voice. It grew out of an essay he wrote for Vanity Fair after Kubrick's death in 1999, and it is the warmest thing he published.
Under a hundred pages, and the best short portrait of Kubrick there is.
— LisanneWhy Did Michael Herr Write So Little?
Four books in fifty years, with long gaps between them. The reasons are part of the story.
- Ten years on one book — he left Vietnam in 1969 and Dispatches did not appear until 1977. Between 1971 and 1975 he published almost nothing at all. Read the entry →
- Then film — Apocalypse Now (1979) and Full Metal Jacket (1987) took the years in which most writers publish their second and third books. See the full list →
- The other three are not Dispatches — an art book on Las Vegas, a novel that began as a screenplay, and a portrait of a friend. None of them tries to repeat it.
- He moved abroad — he spent much of the 1980s in London, where he worked with Peellaert and Kubrick, before returning to upstate New York.
In What Order to Read Michael Herr
There is no order to speak of: the four books have nothing to do with one another. Start with Dispatches, and treat the rest as optional.
If you want them all
1. Dispatches (1977)
2. Kubrick (2000)
3. The Big Room (1986)
4. Walter Winchell (1990)
Everything Else Michael Herr Wrote
Four books is not much for a career of fifty years, and that is partly because his best-known work is not on paper. These are the two films he co-wrote and the magazine pieces worth tracking down.
Open a form with the + to see every book in it.
Films he co-wrote
2
2 books · 1979–1987
- 1979Apocalypse NowFrancis Ford Coppola's Vietnam film; Herr wrote the narration spoken by Martin Sheen
- 1987Full Metal Jacketco-written with Stanley Kubrick and Gustav Hasford, from Hasford's novel The Short-Timers; nominated for an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay
Magazine work
3
3 books · 1978–1999
- Esquire, 1967–1969the Vietnam dispatches that became the book
- 1978“Ted Nugent Goes Berserk”a cover story for Crawdaddy, written after he went on the road with the guitarist; the first thing he published after his silent years
- 1999“Completely Mad”his Vanity Fair essay on Stanley Kubrick, which became the book Kubrick
Quick facts about Michael Herr
- Born
- April 13, 1940, Lexington, Kentucky, as Michael David Herr
- Died
- June 23, 2016, Delhi, New York, aged 76
- Grew up
- Syracuse, New York
- In Vietnam
- 1967–1969, as a correspondent for Esquire, on an open-ended assignment
- Books
- 4, from Dispatches (1977) to Kubrick (2000)
- Screenplays
- Co-wrote Apocalypse Now (1979), for which he wrote the narration, and Full Metal Jacket (1987)
- Silent years
- Published almost nothing between 1971 and 1975
- Called
- “The best book I have ever read on men and war in our time” — John le Carré on Dispatches
- Belongs to
- New Journalism, alongside Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe and Joan Didion
How Michael Herr Wrote: Subjectivity as the Only Accuracy
Herr went to Vietnam without a deadline, which turned out to matter. He was not filing daily copy, so he could watch, wait and take notes, and what he eventually wrote is not reportage in the ordinary sense. It has the shape of memory: scenes out of order, sentences that break off, a voice that is frightened and exhilarated at the same time and admits both.
That admission is the method. Where a conventional correspondent removes himself from the story to sound authoritative, Herr keeps himself in it, including the parts that do not flatter him: his appetite for the danger, the way combat made him feel awake. He belongs with Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe in New Journalism, though he applied the same instinct to the worst subject any of them took on.
It cost him. He has described the years after Vietnam as rough and woolly, barely writing, barely getting by, and Dispatches took a decade to finish. After that he largely left prose for film, and the two war films he worked on carry his voice directly: the narration in Apocalypse Now is his.
Frequently asked questions about Michael Herr's books
How many books did Michael Herr write?
Four: Dispatches (1977), The Big Room (1986), Walter Winchell: A Novel (1990) and Kubrick (2000). He also co-wrote the screenplays for Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket.
What are Michael Herr's books in order?
In order of publication: Dispatches (1977), The Big Room (1986), Walter Winchell (1990), Kubrick (2000).
What is Dispatches about?
Dispatches is Michael Herr's account of the Vietnam War, based on the year or so he spent there as a correspondent for Esquire between 1967 and 1969. It is written as memory rather than reportage, and it is as much about what the war did to the people covering it as about the fighting itself.
Is Dispatches the best book about the Vietnam War?
Many readers and critics think so. C. D. B. Bryan called it the best book written about Vietnam in The New York Times Book Review, and John le Carré called it the best book he had ever read on men and war. It is usually named alongside Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried.
Did Michael Herr write Apocalypse Now?
He co-wrote it. Francis Ford Coppola and John Milius wrote the screenplay, and Herr wrote the narration spoken by Martin Sheen. He later co-wrote Full Metal Jacket (1987) with Stanley Kubrick and Gustav Hasford, which was nominated for an Academy Award.
Did Michael Herr write a novel?
One: Walter Winchell: A Novel (1990), about the American gossip columnist and broadcaster. It began as a screenplay that was never filmed, and the published book keeps the screen directions alongside the prose.
What is Michael Herr's book about Stanley Kubrick?
Kubrick (2000) is a short memoir of his friendship with the director, whom he met while working on Full Metal Jacket. It grew out of an essay he wrote for Vanity Fair after Kubrick's death in 1999, and it is built largely from their long telephone conversations.
Why did Michael Herr write so few books?
Dispatches took him about ten years, and between 1971 and 1975 he published almost nothing. After it appeared he worked mainly in film, on Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket, and the three books that followed are short and unlike one another.
Was Michael Herr a gonzo journalist?
He is usually placed in New Journalism rather than gonzo proper, alongside Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion and Gay Talese. But Dispatches does what gonzo does: the correspondent is inside the story, and his own fear and fascination are part of what is reported.
When did Michael Herr die?
Michael Herr died on June 23, 2016, in Delhi, New York, at the age of 76.
Footnotes
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Vietnam was what we had instead of happy childhoods.”
— Michael Herr, Dispatches (1977)
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