The 25 Best of Vietnam War Literature

The 25 Best Books...

(Alphabetical by Author)

Busch, Frederick. Closing Arguments. NY: Ticknor & Fields, 1991.

Butler, Robert Olen. On Distant Ground. NY: Knopf, 1985.

Caputo, Philip. A Rumor of War. NY: Holt Rinehart Winston, 1977.

Del Vecchio, John. The 13th Valley. NY: Bantam, 1982.

Durden, Charles. No Bugles, No Drums. NY: Viking, 1976.

Ehrhart, W.D., editor. Carrying the Darkness. NY: Avon, 1985. Poetry. Paperback original.

Emerson, Gloria. Winners and Losers. NY: Random House, 1976. National Book Award winner.

Fall, Bernard. Street Without Joy. Harrisburg: Stackpole, 1962.

Fall, Bernard. Hell in a Very Small Place. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1967.

Floyd, Bryan Alec. The Long War Dead. NY: Avon, 1976. Poetry. Paperback original.

Glasser, Ronald. 365 Days. NY: Braziller, 1972.

Greene, Graham. The Quiet American. Lon: Heinemann, 1955.

Heinemann, Larry. Close Quarters. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1977.

Herr, Michael. Dispatches. NY: Knopf, 1977.

Kovic, Ron. Born on the Fourth of July. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1976.

Mayer, Tom. The Weary Falcon. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971.

O'Brien, Tim. If I Die in a Combat Zone. NY: Delacorte, 1973.

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990.

Sheehan, Neil. A Bright Shining Lie. NY: Random House, 1988. Pulitzer Prize winner, National Book Award winner.

Stone, Robert. Dog Soldiers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974. National Book Award winner.

Webb, James. Fields of Fire. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1978.

Wilson, William. The LBJ Brigade. LA: Apocalypse, 1966.

Wolff, Tobias. Ugly Rumours. London: Allen & Unwin, 1975.

(Anthology). Winning Hearts and Minds. Brooklyn, NY: First Casualty, 1972. Poetry by Vietnam vets.

(Anthology). Free Fire Zone. Coventry, CT: First Casualty, 1973. Short stories by Vietnam vets.

...And 26 Contenders

Anderson, Kent. Sympathy for the Devil. NY: Doubleday, 1987.

Balaban, John. After Our War. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 1974. Lamont Poetry Selection.

Butler, Robert Olen. The Alleys of Eden. NY: Horizon, 1981.

Coetzee, J.M. Dusklands. Johannesburg: Ravan, 1974.

Crumley, James. One to Count Cadence. NY: Random House, 1971.

Davis, George. Coming Home. NY: Random House, 1971. Black writer.

Ford, Daniel. Incident at Muc Wa. Garden City: Doubleday, 1977. Basis for the film Go Tell the Spartans.

Groom, Winston. Better Times Than These. NY: Summit, 1978.

Haldeman, Joe. War Year. NY: Holt Rinehart Winston, 1972.

Haldeman, Joe. The Forever War. NY: St. Martin's, 1974. Hugo and Nebula Awards winner.

Hasford, Gustav. The Short-Timers. NY: Harper & Row, 1979. Basis for the film Full Metal Jacket.

Heinemann, Larry. Paco's Story. NY: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1986. National Book Award winner.

Hempstone, Smith. A Tract of Time. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966.

Lang, Daniel. Casualties of War. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1969. Basis for the film.

Lederer, William, and Burdick, Eugene. The Ugly American. NY: Norton, 1958.

Little, Loyd. Parthian Shot. NY: Viking, 1975. Hemingway Award winner.

Mason, Bobbie Ann. In Country. NY: Holt & Rinehart, 1985. Basis for the film.

Moore, Robin. The Green Berets. NY: Crown, 1965. Basis for the film.

O'Brien, Tim. Going After Cacciato. NY: Delacorte, 1978. National Book Award winner.

Pratt, John Clark. The Laotian Fragments. NY: Viking, 1974.

Roth, Robert. Sand in the Wind. Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1973.

Scarborough, Elizabeth. Healer's War. NY: Doubleday, 1988. Nebula Award winner.

Sloan, James Park. War Games. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971.

Strete, Craig Kee. Paint Your Face on a Drowning in the River. NY: Greenwillow, 1978. American Indian writer.

Taylor, Thomas. A Piece of This Country. NY: Norton, 1970.

Wright, Stephen. Meditations in Green. NY: Scribner's, 1983. Maxwell Perkins Prize.