Mark Bowden
| Mark Bowden | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mark Robert Bowden July 17, 1951 St. Louis, Missouri, United States |
| Pen name | Mark Bowden |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | American |
| Notable works | Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War |
Mark Robert Bowden (born July 17, 1951) is an American writer and author. He has been The Distinguished Writer in Residence at The University of Delaware since 2013. He is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and also a National Correspondent for The Atlantic. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he is a 1973 graduate of Loyola University Maryland. While at Loyola, he was inspired to embark on a journalistic career by reading Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. In 2010, in his acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award at the National Book Awards, Wolfe called Bowden one of the two "writers to watch" (along with Michael Lewis).
From 1979 to 2003, Bowden was a staff writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Over the years, he has written for The New Yorker, Men's Journal, The Atlantic, Sports Illustrated, and Rolling Stone. Some of his awards are listed below.
As a result of his book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, Bowden has received international recognition. The book was made into a 2001 movie directed by Ridley Scott.
He currently lives in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Bowden's son, Aaron, is also a writer. Bowden's own father, now deceased, was a first cousin of former Florida State Seminoles football coach Bobby Bowden.
From June 2012 through March 2013 the legal blog "Trials & Tribulations", which reports on Californian trials and legal affairs, has run a seven part series titled "Fact Checking Mark Bowden's Curious Vanity Fair Article on Stephanie Lazarus". The blog series disputes facts in Bowden's July 2012 Vanity Fair article, "A Case So Cold It Was Blue", suggests that quotes and states of mind of key persons in the narrative had been made up by Bowden to fit his story, and questions whether Bowden had done any relevant interviews or had attended a single day of the murder trial of former LAPD detective Stephanie Lazarus, whose case was the centerpiece of his story. In Part VI, published on T&T in October 2012, Bowden's editor at Vanity Fair, Cullen Murphy, declined to comment on the record about the errors in Bowden's article. Part VII, from March 2013, suggests that Bowden, who was not approached about the allegations prior to their posting, has since declined to respond to questions posed by the website's blogger regarding the disputed Vanity Fair story when asked either through Email or in person.
...
Wikipedia