Dispatches.

London:: Picador,, 1997.. First Printing of the First UK Edition. A Fine tight unread copy in a Fine bright unclipped dust jacket. Michael Herr went to Vietnam in 1967 virtually unknown as a writer but, armed with press credentials for Esquire Magazine, he quickly rose above the crowd of writers covering the war with his brilliant, unorthodox prose. Herr's six extended pieces in this collection capture the war and its participants like no other writer except for Tim O'Brian in his equally masterful "The Things They Carried." Herr was one of the original Gonzo New Journalists in the company of such literary trail-cutters as Hunter S Thompson, Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote and Gay Talese. Herr when not imbedded on numerous marine and army operations spent many off hours in the company of three other flamboyant correspondents: Tim Page, Dana Stone and Sean Flynn (Errol Flynn's son). Photographer Page would survive his experience in Vietnam but in 1970, while traveling by motorcycle in Cambodia, Flynn and Dana Stone (on assignment for Time magazine and CBS News respectively) were captured by communist guerrillas at a roadblock on Highway One. They were never heard from again and their remains have never been found. Herr found himself in as much danger as the soldiers he set out to document in a war that was more disillusioning than understandable. He was with the marines during the prolonged siege of Khe Sanh and most effectively captured the hallucinatory madness of the battle. "Dispatches" is as good as (war) writing gets; Herr puts the reader right where he is, so that his experience becomes yours which is about as close as most people would ever want to get to the real thing.