Philip Caputo (born June 10, 1941) is an American author and journalist. He is best known for A Rumor of War (1977), a best-selling memoir of his experiences during the Vietnam War. Caputo has written 18 books, including three memoirs, five books of general nonfiction, nine novels, and one book of short stories. His latest is the novel Memory and Desire which was published in 2023 by Arcade Publishing.
Philip Caputo | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | June 10, 1941 Westchester, Illinois, U.S. |
| Education | Loyola University Chicago (BA) |
| Occupation(s) | Author, journalist |
| Website | www |
Early life and career
editPhilip Caputo was born in Westchester, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and raised in Berwyn and Westchester. He attended Fenwick High School and Loyola University Chicago, graduating with a B.A. in English in 1964. From 1965–1966 Caputo served in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) as an infantry lieutenant (platoon commander) in the United States Marine Corps. Caputo served in combat and earned several medals and awards upon completion of his tour of duty.[1]
After serving three years in the Corps, Caputo began a career in journalism, joining the staff of the Chicago Tribune in 1968. In 1973, Caputo was part of a writing team that won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on election fraud in Chicago. For the next five years, he was a foreign correspondent for the Tribune. He covered the fall of Saigon in 1975, and he worked in Italy, the Soviet Union and the Middle East.[2] In 1975, he was shot and wounded in the ankle by a militiaman with an AK-47 during the Battle of the Hotels in Lebanon.[3][4]
Books and articles
editPhilip Caputo's memoir of Vietnam, A Rumor of War (1977), has been published in 15 languages, and has sold two million copies since its first publication. It is widely regarded as a classic in the literature of war. The book was adapted as a 1980 two-part TV movie of the same name, starring Brad Davis, Keith Carradine, Brian Dennehy, and Michael O'Keefe. A Fortieth Anniversary Edition of A Rumor of War was published in summer 2017.[5]
Memory and Desire (2023), Caputo’s 18th book, is a novel set in south Florida about love and the persistence of love, about desire and desire remembered, and the reunion of a fifty-year-old man with a son he fathered out of wedlock in his youth.[6]
In addition to books, Caputo has published dozens of major magazine articles, reviews, and op-ed pieces in publications ranging from The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post to Esquire, National Geographic, and the Virginia Quarterly Review.[7]
Lecturing and television
editCaputo has lectured at approximately 20 universities and prep schools around the country, and has been a featured speaker for the National Book Committee, the American Library Association, and the American Publishers Association. He has participated in the Key West Literary Seminar, Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, Chicago Humanities Festival, and the Cheltenham Literary Festival in Cheltenham, England.
He has also worked as a screenwriter for Paramount Pictures and Michael Douglas Productions. Caputo has been a guest on the Charlie Rose Show and the Today Show. He has narrated or appeared in several TV documentaries on the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and other subjects.[2]
Bibliography
editFiction
edit- Horn of Africa. 1980.
- Delcorso's Gallery (1983)
- Indian Country (1987)
- Equation for Evil (1996)
- Exiles (1997)
- The Voyage (1999)
- Acts of Faith (2005) ISBN 0375411666
- Crossers (2009)
- Some Rise by Sin (2017) ISBN 978-1627794749
- Hunter's Moon (2019) ISBN 9781627794763
- Memory and Desire (2023) ISBN 9781956763812
Nonfiction
edit- Ghosts of Tsavo (2002)
- In the Shadows of the Morning (2002)
- 13 Seconds: A Look Back At the Kent State Shootings (2005) ISBN 1596090804
- Ten Thousand Days of Thunder (2005)
- "The border of madness". The Atlantic. 304 (5): 62–69. December 2009.[8]
- Memoir
- A Rumor of War (1977) ISBN 003017631X OCLC 2974701
- Means of Escape[9] (1991) ISBN 0060183128 OCLC 23732376
- The Longest Road (2013) ISBN 978-1250048745
Filmography
editReferences
edit- ^ Caputo, Philip (August 2017). A rumor of war. Picador. ISBN 978-1-250-11712-0. OCLC 957021208.
- ^ a b "About Phil". Philip Caputo.
- ^ "To save lives, shrink gun magazines". Washington Post.
- ^ Pierre Tristam (June 26, 2011). "Middle East: Beirut's St. Georges Hotel, Still Trying to Slay Dragons". About.com. Archived from the original on December 13, 2014. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
- ^ "A Rumor of War - Philip Caputo". Philip Caputo. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
- ^ "Meet the Author".
- ^ "Selected Articles". Philip Caputo.
- ^ Online version is titled "The fall of Mexico".
- ^ "All Books". Philip Caputo.
External links
edit- Philip Caputo official website, including article and book links, reviews, interviews, FAQs
- Philip Caputo's papers at Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center[permanent dead link]
- Interview of Philip Caputo by Charlie Rose (2005)
- Review of Crossers by William T. Vollmann
- Interview on Acts of Faith at the Pritzker Military Library
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Interview with Philip Caputo by Stephen McKiernan, Binghamton University Libraries Center for the Study of the 1960s, December 12, 2009
- Philip Caputo at IMDb