Mark Bowden
American journalist and writer (born 1951)
Who was Mark Bowden?
Mark Bowden (; born 1951) is an American journalist and writer. Bowden was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1951. Bowden graduated from Loyola University Maryland in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature. In college, he aspired to be a journalist after reading Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. He is a former national correspondent and longtime contributor to The Atlantic. From 1979 to 2003, Bowden was a staff writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Historical significance
Bowden is best known for his book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War (1999) about the 1993 U.S. military raid in Mogadishu, which was later adapted into a motion picture of the same name that received two Academy Awards. Bowden is also known for the books Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw (2001), about the efforts to take down Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, Guests of the Ayatollah and Hue 1968, an account of the Battle of Huế. Former Florida State Seminoles football coach Bobby Bowden is his first cousin once removed.