The first illustrated edition of Michael Herr’s Dispatches captures the chaos, fear and surreal culture of war with Tim Page’s photography and an exclusive introduction by Frances FitzGerald.
Editor’s Note
Mandy Kirkby, Editor
Dispatches is the most famous book on the Vietnam War, and probably the best. This electrifying piece of reportage shaped the American public's understanding of the conflict - and still offers the definitive account of war in our time. Herr was only 27 when he went to Vietnam and he immersed himself completely, following platoons on the ground in reckless jeopardy, catching helicopters like taxis and sharing the experience of the ordinary soldiers (the "grunts"). He reported that experience in mesmerizing prose that seized by the throat, and no reporting from the war until then had come anywhere near that.
For this 50th anniversary edition, we've added work by two Vietnam legends – an exclusive introduction by Frances FitzGerald, one of only a handful of women who reported on the war, and photographs by Tim Page, fearless photojournalist and model for the crazy photographer in Apocalypse Now.
SYNOPSIS
War is chaos, and in Vietnam, the truth is stranger — and darker — than any fiction. Michael Herr plunges readers into the raw, unfiltered reality of the conflict, where soldiers’ lives are measured in moments, and survival depends on luck as much as courage. Told with brutal honesty and piercing insight, Dispatches reveals the fear, camaraderie and absurdity of war, shattering illusions with its unrelenting intensity. As Herr confronts the toll on body and mind, he captures a war like no other—a searing account that haunts long after the last page.
PRODUCTION DETAILS
304 pages
28 pages of color plates with full page or double page spread images
Set in Miller with Serifa as display
Bound in screen-printed and blocked cloth
Printed endpapers and slipcase
Printed in United Kingdom
9¼˝ x 6¼˝
