Sebastian Junger

Sebastian Junger (born January 17, 1962) is an American journalist, author and filmmaker who has reported in-the-field on dirty, dangerous and demanding occupations and the experience of infantry combat. He is the author of '' The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea'' (1997) which was adapted into a major motion picture and led to a resurgence in adventure creative nonfiction writing. He covered the War in Afghanistan for more than a decade, often embedded in dangerous and remote military outposts. The book ''War'' (2010) was drawn from his field reporting for ''Vanity Fair'', that also served as the background for the documentary film '' Restrepo'' (2010) which received the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Junger's works explore themes such as brotherhood, trauma, and the relationship of the individual to society as told from the far reaches of human experience.

Background

Junger was born in Belmont, Massachusetts, the son of Ellen Sinclair, a painter, and Miguel Chapero Junger, a physicist. Born in Dresden, Germany, and of Russian, Austrian, Spanish, and Italian descent, his father immigrated to the United States during World War II to escape persecution because of paternal Jewish ancestry, and to study engineering at MIT. Junger grew up in the Belmont neighborhood, which he learned was the territory of the Boston Strangler. He was later inspired to write ''A Death in Belmont'' (2006).

Junger graduated from Concord Academy in 1980 and received a bachelor of arts degree from Wesleyan University in cultural anthropology in 1984. As an accomplished long-distance runner, he spent a summer training on the Navajo Nation reservation and wrote his thesis on Navajo long-distance running and its traditional, pre-Columbian roots.

Career

Junger began working as a freelance writer, often trying to publish articles on topics that interested him. He often took other jobs for temporary periods of time to support himself. Researching dangerous occupations as a topic, he became deeply engaged in learning about commercial fishing and its hazards.

In 1997, with the success of his non-fiction book, '' The Perfect Storm'', Junger was touted as a new Hemingway. His work stimulated renewed interest in adventure non-fiction. The book received a large pre-publication deal for movie rights, was on the ''New York Times'' bestseller list for a year in the hardback edition, and for two years in paperback.

In 2000 Junger published an article "The Forensics of War," in '' Vanity Fair''. He received a National Magazine Award for this. He continues to work there as a contributing editor. In early 2007, he reported from Nigeria on the subject of blood oil. With British photographer Tim Hetherington, Junger created ''The Other War: Afghanistan,'' produced with ABC News and ''Vanity Fair''. It was shown on ''Nightline'' in September 2008 and the two men shared the DuPont-Columbia Award for broadcast journalism for the work.

His book ''War'' (2010) revolves around a platoon of the US Army 173rd Airborne stationed in Afghanistan.

Junger, along with Hetherington, used material gathered in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan for the book and to create a related documentary feature '' Restrepo.'' The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and won the Grand Jury Prize for a domestic documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. On April 27, 2011, Junger was presented with the "Leadership in Entertainment Award" by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) for his work on '' Restrepo.''

Junger's book, ''Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging'', was published in May 2016.

Junger has a chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss' book ''Tools of Titans''.

His latest work ''Freedom'', on the American ideal of the same name, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2021.

While much of Junger's writing is subjective and participatory, he strives to maintain a neutral point of view and avoids contemporary political discussion, especially around frequent subjects like economic inequality and war. In 2021, he cited his "favorite quote" in an interview with ''The Guardian'': "Journalists don’t tell people what to think. They tell them what to think about."

Personal life

Junger lives in New York City and rural Cape Cod. He's married and lives with his wife and two children. His first daughter was born in 2016 when he was age 55. Previously, Junger was married to writer Daniela Petrova. They divorced in 2014. He is an atheist.

Junger co-owned a bar in New York City called the Half King. Named after a Seneca warrior that played colonial forces against each other in the Seven Years War, the bar hosted in-house readings and photo exhibits and was favored by war correspondents and conflict photographers. Rising rents made the business unsustainable, and the Half King closed in 2019 after 19 years of operation.

In June 2020, Junger had a near-death experience when his pancreatic artery ruptured while he was at home in rural Truro, Massachusetts. He is working on a book about the experience, tentatively titled ''Pulse: What Keeps Us Alive and What Happens When We Die.''

Notable work

''The Perfect Storm''

Junger's book ''The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea'' (1997) became an international bestseller. It recounts a storm in October 1991 that resulted in the Gloucester fishing boat ''Andrea Gail'' going down off the coast of Nova Scotia, and the loss of all six crew members: Billy Tyne, Bobby Shatford, Alfred Pierre, David Sullivan, Michael Moran and Dale Murphy.

In 2000, the book was adapted by Warner Brothers as a film of the same name, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg.

Junger said that while recovering from a chainsaw injury, he was inspired to write about dangerous jobs. He planned to start with commercial fishing in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He developed this project as ''The Perfect Storm'', as he became more involved with learning about the crew members and the conditions and decisions that contributed to their deaths.

Junger established The Perfect Storm Foundation to provide cultural and educational grants to children across the country whose parents make their living in the commercial fishing industry.

''A Death in Belmont''

''A Death in Belmont'' centers on the 1963 rape and murder of Bessie Goldberg. This was during the period from 1962 to 1964 of the infamous Boston Strangler crimes. Junger received the 2007 PEN/Winship award for the book. Junger raises the possibility in his book that the real Strangler was Albert DeSalvo. He eventually confessed to committing several Strangler murders, but not Goldberg's. Roy Smith, an African-American man, was convicted in her death based on circumstantial evidence.

Junger suggests that Smith's conviction for Goldberg's death was influenced by racism. The prosecution called witnesses who remembered seeing Smith chiefly because he was a black man walking in a predominately white neighborhood. (Eyewitness testimony has been shown to be notoriously flawed.) Smith had cleaned Goldberg's house the day she was attacked and left a receipt (for his work) with his name on her kitchen counter. No physical evidence, such as bruises or blood, linked Smith to the crime. In 1976, he was granted commutation of his life sentence. Before he gained release, Smith died of lung cancer.

Junger draws no conclusions about the guilt or innocence of either Smith or DeSalvo. Goldberg's daughter has vigorously disputed Junger's suggestion that Smith may have been innocent. Defense attorney Alan Dershowitz said in his review of the book: It "must be read with the appropriate caution that should surround any work of nonfiction in which the author is seeking a literary or dramatic payoff." He noted that Junger did not include endnotes or footnotes, and suggested he may have had too much interest in "playing down coincidences and emphasizing connections."

''Fire''

''Fire'' is a collection of articles about dangerous regions or dangerous occupations. In the chapter "Lion in Winter", Junger interviews Ahmad Shah Massoud, leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance and known as the Lion of the Panjshir. He was a famed resistance fighter against the Soviets and the Taliban. Junger was one of the last Western journalists to interview Massoud in depth. Much of this was first published in March 2001 for ''National Geographic Adventure'', along with photographs by Iranian photographer Reza Deghati

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