Mark Bowden

Bowden was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1951.{{cite web |url=https://mainlinetoday.com/life-style/the-seeker/ |title=The Seeker |author= |date=2008-07-10 |website=Main Line Today |access-date=2024-01-22 |quote=Mark Bowden was born in St. Louis...}} He graduated from Loyola University Maryland in 1973 with a B.A in English literature. While he was at college, he was inspired to embark on a career in journalism by reading Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2130198/ |title=My First Literary Crush |website=Slate |date=November 15, 2005 |access-date=January 9, 2011 |archive-date=September 8, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100908054510/http://www.slate.com/id/2130198 |url-status=live }}

From 1979 to 2003, Bowden was a staff writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer. In that role he researched and wrote Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo, both of which appeared as lengthy serials in the newspaper before being published as books. He published two books prior to these, Doctor Dealer and Bringing the Heat, both of which were based on reporting he originally did for the newspaper. He has since published twelve other books. Bowden wrote the 1997 Playboy profile of Donald Trump.{{Cite magazine |last=Bowden |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Bowden |date=May 1, 1997 |title=The Art of the Donald |url=https://www.playboy.com/read/the-art-of-the-donald |url-status=live |magazine=Playboy |type=Interview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200710103753/https://www.playboy.com/read/the-art-of-the-donald |archive-date=July 10, 2020 |access-date=July 12, 2020}}

Bowden is a contributing writer for The Atlantic, and has contributed to Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Men's Journal, Sports Illustrated, Air Mail, Business Insider, and Rolling Stone.

He has taught journalism and creative writing at Loyola University Maryland, and was Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of Delaware from 2013 to 2017.

Former Florida State Seminoles football coach Bobby Bowden is his first cousin once removed.{{cite news |last1=Dargan |first1=Michele |title=Bowden: 1958 Colts-Giants championship an NFL game changer |url=https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/article/20120401/ENTERTAINMENT/304019862 |access-date=September 16, 2019 |work=Palm Beach Daily News |date=April 1, 2012 |location=Palm Beach, FL |archive-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803231320/https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/article/20120401/ENTERTAINMENT/304019862 |url-status=live }}

From June 2012 through March 2013, the legal blog Trials & Tribulations (T&T), which reports on California trials and legal affairs, ran a seven-part series titled "Fact Checking Mark Bowden's Curious Vanity Fair Article on Stephanie Lazarus".{{cite web |url=http://sprocket-trials.blogspot.com/2013/03/fact-checking-mark-bowdens-curious.html |title=Fact Checking Mark Bowden's Curious Vanity Fair Article on Stephanie Lazarus |work=Sprocket-Trials |date=March 8, 2013 |access-date=March 11, 2013 |archive-date=March 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313033856/http://sprocket-trials.blogspot.com/2013/03/fact-checking-mark-bowdens-curious.html |url-status=live }} This series disputes elements of Bowden's July 2012 Vanity Fair article, "A Case So Cold It Was Blue".{{cite magazine |url=http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/07/lapd-lazurus-murder-mystery-killer |first=Mark |last=Bowden |title=A Case So Cold It Was Blue |magazine=Vanity Fair |date=July 2012 |access-date=August 4, 2012 |archive-date=December 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202234627/http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/07/lapd-lazurus-murder-mystery-killer |url-status=live }} The author suggests that Bowden may have created quotes and states of mind of principals to fit his story, and questions whether the journalist had conducted relevant interviews or attended a single day of the murder trial of former LAPD detective Stephanie Lazarus, although this case was the centerpiece of his story.

Part VI of the series, published on T&T in October 2012, noted that Cullen Murphy, Bowden's editor at Vanity Fair, declined to comment on the record to the blog's author about the allegations related to Bowden's article. Part VII,{{Cite web |url=http://sprocket-trials.blogspot.com/2013/03/fact-checking-mark-bowdens-curious.html |title=Fact Checking Mark Bowden's Curious Vanity Fair Article on Stephanie Lazarus, Part VII |date=March 8, 2013 |access-date=March 11, 2013 |archive-date=March 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313033856/http://sprocket-trials.blogspot.com/2013/03/fact-checking-mark-bowdens-curious.html |url-status=live }} published in March 2013, said that Bowden, who was not approached about the blog's allegations prior to their posting, had since declined to respond to questions posed by the website's blogger regarding his article. He has said that he welcomes questions about it from others.

Poynter Journalism School blog posted an extended analysis of the dispute by Craig Silverman,{{Cite web |first=Craig |last=Silverman |author-link=Craig Silverman |url=https://www.poynter.org/newsletters/2012/vanity-fair-corrects-bowden-story-about-stephanie-lazarus-case/ |title=Vanity Fair corrects Bowden story about Stephanie Lazarus case |date=September 28, 2012 |website=Poynter Institute |access-date=July 1, 2019 |archive-date=July 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190701185100/https://www.poynter.org/newsletters/2012/vanity-fair-corrects-bowden-story-about-stephanie-lazarus-case/ |url-status=live }} noting that Vanity Fair had posted a correction to the article, and that "the discrepancies [noted by T&T] don't amount to quote manipulation or a misrepresentation of what was said." Vanity Fair editor Cullen Murphy, in an e-mail to Poynter, said in part "the quotations used in Bowden's text correspond with relevant portions of the video. Some things are hard to make out, and there may be an occasional small variance, but a fair reading would conclude that the quotes track accurately and correctly capture the dynamic of the interrogation. There has been no distortion." Silverman closes by listing three takeaways for newsrooms, one of which is, "Whether or not you like the tone or approach taken by an outside critic, you still have a responsibility to examine claims of factual error or ethical malfeasance," and he notes further that it might have been easier for T&T and Vanity Fair to deal with the issue if they had spoken to one another directly.

In the October 2003 issue of The Atlantic, Bowden's article "The Dark Art of Interrogation"[https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2003/10/bowden.htm "The Dark Art of Interrogation", The Atlantic, October 2003.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110318195334/http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2003/10/bowden.htm |date=March 18, 2011 }} Retrieved September 12, 2010. advocated an official ban on all forms of "coercive" interrogation but argued that they should still be practiced in secret and should not necessarily be punished if revealed. Written more than a year before the violations of prisoners were revealed at Abu Ghraib and other detention centers, he wrote, in part:

The Bush Administration has adopted exactly the right posture on the matter. Candor and consistency are not always public virtues. Torture is a crime against humanity, but coercion is an issue that is rightly handled with a wink, or even a touch of hypocrisy; it should be banned but also quietly practiced. Those who protest coercive methods will exaggerate their horrors, which is good: it generates a useful climate of fear. It is wise of the President to reiterate U.S. support for international agreements banning torture, and it is wise for American interrogators to employ whatever coercive methods work. It is also smart not to discuss the matter with anyone.

If interrogators step over the line from coercion to outright torture, they should be held personally responsible. But no interrogator is ever going to be prosecuted for keeping Khalid Sheikh Mohammed awake, cold, alone, and uncomfortable. Nor should he be.

In The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson, Bowden's article was noted as a reference to the CIA's Project ARTICHOKE.Jon Ronson, The Men Who Stare at Goats, pp. 231–234 This program developed physical methods that can be used during interrogations and Ronson noted that they can be brutal or fatal.

Bowden believes that young people are just as drawn to "deep" journalism as other generations of people have been. He said in March 2009: "Nothing will ever replace language as the medium of thought, so nothing will replace the well-written, originally-reported story, or the well-reasoned essay."[https://web.archive.org/web/20110728054420/http://bellum.stanfordreview.org/?p=908 "Special Guest: Mark Bowden (Part 2)"], Bellum, A Project of The Stanford Review, March 17, 2009.

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• Winner Overseas Press Club's Cornelius Ryan Award for the best book of 2001 (for Killing Pablo)
• 1997 Winner, Overseas Press Club's Hal Boyle Award for "best reporting from abroad" (for articles published in The Philadelphia Inquirer about the Battle of Mogadishu
• 1999, finalist, National Book Award for Black Hawk Down
• Winner, Feature writing award from the Sunday Magazine Editors Association, 1987 (for Finder's Keeper's)
• Winner, Science Writing Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1980
• Finalist, best newspaper writing, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1979 (for Life in the Projects)
• Winner, Maryland Library Association's Maryland Author Award for nonfiction writing, 2011 (for body of work)
• Winner, Gen. Wallace Greene Award for nonfiction writing, USMC Heritage Foundation 2018 (for Hue 1968)
• Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Award, History, 2018 (for Hue 1968)
• Finalist, The Andrew Carnegie Medal, Nonfiction, 2018 (for Hue 1968)
• Inductee, The Cybersecurity Canon 2018 (for Worm)

• {{cite book |title=Doctor Dealer |title-link=Doctor Dealer |location=New York |publisher=Grove Press |year=2001 |orig-year=1987 |version=Reprint }}
• Bringing the Heat (1994; {{ISBN|0-679-42841-0}})
• {{cite book |title=Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War |title-link=Black Hawk Down (book) |year=1999 |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |isbn=978-0-87113-738-8 }}
• {{cite book |title=Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw |title-link=Killing Pablo |date=2001 |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0871137838 |edition=1st}}
• Our Finest Day: D-Day, June 6, 1944 (2002; {{ISBN|0-8118-3050-0}})
• Finders Keepers: The Story of a Man Who Found $1 Million (2002; {{ISBN|0-87113-859-X}})
• Road Work: Among Tyrants, Heroes, Rogues, and Beasts (2006; {{ISBN|0-87113-876-X}})
• {{cite book |title=Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |location=New York |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-87113-925-2 |oclc=62738726 |url=https://archive.org/details/guestsofayatolla00bowd |url-access=registration}}
• The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL (2008; {{ISBN|0-87113-988-X}})
• Worm: The First Digital World War, (2011; {{ISBN|0-8021-1983-2}}); first covered by Bowden in [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/06/the-enemy-within/8098/ "The Enemy Within"], The Atlantic (June 2010).
• The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden, (2012 {{ISBN|0-8021-2034-2}})
• The Three Battles of Wanat and Other True Stories (2016 {{ISBN|978-0-8021-2411-1}})
• Hue 1968 (2017 {{ISBN|978-0802127006}})
• The Last Stone: A Masterpiece of Criminal Interrogation (2019 {{ISBN|978-0802147301}})
• The Steal: Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It, co-authored with Matthew Teague. (2022 ISBN 978-0-8021-5995-3)
• Life Sentence: The Brief and Tragic Career of Baltimore's Deadliest Gang Leader, (2023 {{ISBN|978-0802162427}})

• Article "The Joey Coyle Story" was adapted as Money for Nothing (1993)
• Black Hawk Down (2001)
• The True Story of Killing Pablo (2002), adapted as a TV movie
• Essence of Combat: Making Black Hawk Down (2003) (video)
• The True Story of Black Hawk Down (2003) (TV)
• Guests of the Ayatollah, adapted as a 2006 TV movie
• Stalking Jihad, adapted as a 2007 TV movie{{Cite web |title=History TV Shows |url=http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=249187 |access-date=April 28, 2014 |website=History.com}}{{dead link|date=December 2017|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes>}}
• Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam, to be adapted for a TV series on the Vietnam War, to be directed by Michael Mann{{Cite web |last=Leane |first=Rob |date=July 7, 2017 |title=Michael Mann to direct a Vietnam War TV series |url=http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/hue-1968/50544/michael-mann-to-direct-a-vietnam-war-tv-series |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180722042303/http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/hue-1968/50544/michael-mann-to-direct-a-vietnam-war-tv-series |archive-date=July 22, 2018 |access-date=July 21, 2018 |website=Den of Geek}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0100736}}
• [https://www.theatlantic.com/mark-bowden/ Works by Mark Bowden] at The Atlantic
• [http://www.vanityfair.com/contributors/mark-bowden Works by Mark Bowden] at Vanity Fair
• [http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists//mark_bowden Philly.com Biography: Mark Bowden]
• [https://www.theatlantic.com/about/people/mbbio.htm Atlantic Monthly Biography]
• [http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/whats_on/pritzker-military-presents/mark-bowden-guests-ayatollah/ Interview] on Guests of the Ayatollah at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library on June 7, 2006
• [http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/whats_on/pritzker-military-presents/mark-bowden-finish/ Bowden discusses The Finish] at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library on December 12, 2012
• [https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2003/10/bowden.htm The Dark Art of Interrogation, The Atlantic Monthly, October 2003 retrieved September 12, 2010]
• {{C-SPAN|42501}}
• [http://www.c-span.org/video/?192800-1/depth-mark-bowden In Depth interview with Bowden, June 4, 2006]

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Category:1951 births

Category:Living people

Category:American foreign policy writers

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Category:21st-century American male writers

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Category:Writers from Pennsylvania

Category:The Philadelphia Inquirer people

Category:Loyola University Maryland alumni

Category:The Atlantic (magazine) people

Category:American magazine journalists

Category:Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

Category:American crime writers