Michael Herr, author of the Vietnam-era 'Dispatches,' dies

NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Herr, the author and Oscar-nominated screenplay writer who viscerally documented the ravages of the Vietnam War through his classic nonfiction novel "Dispatches" and through such films as "Apocalypse Now" and "Full Metal Jacket," died after a long illness.

A native of Syracuse, New York, with a knack for eavesdropping and a reverence for Ernest Hemingway, Herr was part of the New Journalism wave that included Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote and Norman Mailer and advocated applying literary style and techniques to traditional reporting.

Herr spent much of his 20s traveling and working for magazines before convincing Esquire magazine editor Harold Hayes, in 1967, to let him travel to Vietnam and write a monthly column.

"The reception (for 'Dispatches') couldn't have been better, frankly — it couldn't have been more wonderful," he told The Los Angeles Times in 1990, around the time he released "Walter Winchell," a novel about the famous gossip columnist.

Admirers of "Dispatches" included some prominent filmmakers, and Herr began a career in movies.