Michael Herr was a correspondent for Esquire in 1967 when he went to Vietnam and wrote the article "Hell Sucks." This work immediately put him in the forefront of the journalists who were writing on the war at that time. The piece became part of Dispatches, a shattering book that documented the war that he saw through his own eyes, not the one that was being passed off as fact to less adventurous correspondents by the military. Herr wrote of the fears and pain of the young soldiers, using their own (often obscene) language. He set his stories to the backdrop of rock music and pop culture battle fantasies that all too often became frighteningly real. His book became an instant classic of the Vietnam era. Herr has also been active in the motion picture industry, with writing credits for Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The Rainmaker. In addition, he served as an associate producer of Full Metal Jacket. In addition, Michael Herr is the author of Walter Winchell: A Novel, an experiment in which he combined a novel and a screenplay to tell the story of one of the country's most influential gossip columnists.