Were Michael Herr and Joseph Brodsky known for their writing?
Michael Herr Michael David Herr (April 13, 1940 – June 23, 2016) was an American writer and war correspondent, known as the author of "Dispatches" (1977), a memoir of his time as a correspondent for "Esquire magazine" (1967–1969) during the Vietnam War. The book was called the best "to have been written about the Vietnam War" by "The New York Times Book Review"; novelist John le Carré called it "the best book I have ever read on men and war in our time." Herr later was credited with pioneering the literary genre of the nonfiction novel, along with authors such as Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, and Tom Wolfe.
Samuel Hoffenstein Samuel "Sam" Hoffenstein (October 8, 1890 - October 6, 1947) was a screenwriter and a musical composer. Born in Russia, he emigrated to the United States and began a career in New York City as a newspaper writer and in the entertainment business. In 1931 he moved to Los Angeles, where he lived for the rest of his life and where he wrote the scripts for over thirty movies. These movies included "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1931), "The Miracle Man" (1932), "Phantom of the Opera" (1943), "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), "Tales of Manhattan" (1942), "Flesh and Fantasy" (1943), "Laura" (1944), and Ernst Lubitsch's "Cluny Brown" (1946).