Philip Caputo, the author best known for his 1977 memoir, A Rumor of War, died at 84, the New York Times reports.

Caputo, a Chicago native, was educated at Purdue University and Loyola University in Chicago, before enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps. He served for three years, including a 16-month stint in Vietnam. After being discharged, he worked as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for their work on a story about election fraud in the city.

In 1975, Caputo was shot twice in the feet while covering the Lebanese Civil War. During his recuperation, he worked on A Rumor of War, which chronicled his experiences in Vietnam. The memoir, now considered a classic of Vietnam War literature, became a bestseller and received extensive critical acclaim. In 1980, it was adapted for a television miniseries starring Brad Davis, Keith Carradine, and Brian Dennehy.

He went on to publish two more memoirs, Means of Escape and The Longest Road, as well as several works of fiction, including Equation for Evil, Exiles, Some Rise by Sin, Hunter’s Moon, and, most recently, Wandering Souls.

Caputo’s son Marc Caputo, a reporter for Axios, paid tribute to him on the social platform X, writing, “Philip Caputo wrote a best-selling classic about Vietnam, shared a Pulitzer for uncovering Chicago’s voting fraud, was captured by militants in Lebanon & shot by others, covered wars in Afghanistan to Africa, hunted big game & caught bigger fish. RIP dad.”

Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.