Evan Wright, "a modern-day gonzo journalist who embedded with an elite U.S. Marine battalion in Iraq for prizewinning articles that were published in Rolling Stone and grew into the book and HBO miniseries Generation Kill," died July 12 at age 59, the Washington Post reported. Wright wrote for several magazines including Time and Vanity Fair, but was perhaps best known for his contributions to Rolling Stone, the literary home beginning in the 1970s of Hunter S. Thompson.
Wright, however, rejected the "gonzo" label. " 'Gonzo' speaks of writing that is more about the reporter than the subject," he wrote in Hella Nation: Looking for Happy Meals in Kandahar, Rocking the Side Pipe, Wingnut's War Against the Gap, and Other Adventures With the Totally Lost Tribes of America (2009). "With few exceptions, my intent has always been to focus on my subjects in all of their imperfect glory."
He was most celebrated as a war correspondent, embedding first with the U.S. military in Afghanistan and then, in 2003, with the Marine First Reconnaissance Battalion in Iraq. His writings from Iraq, a three-part series published in Rolling Stone as "The Killer Elite," received the 2004 National Magazine Award for reporting. Wright expanded his articles into the book Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War (2004), which was later adapted in 2008 into an HBO miniseries the author co-wrote with David Simon and Ed Burns (The Wire).
Lt. Nathan Fick, who was featured prominently in Rolling Stone's "The Killer Elite" series, wrote in a tribute: "I knew Evan as a good and gentle guy in a place that was neither good nor gentle. He wasn't a Marine, but many of us who spent March and April 2003 alongside him have thought of Evan for the past two decades as one of us. Rest in peace, brother."
In a social media post, David Simon wrote: "We've lost a fine journalist and storyteller. Evan's contributions to the scripting and filming of Generation Kill were elemental. He was charming, funny and not a little bit feral, as many reporters are. So many moments writing in Baltimore and on set in Africa to remember."
Wright's other books include American Desperado: My Life--From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset (with Jon Roberts, 2011) and How to Get Away With Murder in America: Drug Lords, Dirty Pols, Obsessed Cops, and the Quiet Man Who Became the CIA's Master Killer (2012). Generation Kill is available in paperback from Putnam.
