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Born on the Fourth of July (ISBN 1-888451-78-5) is the best selling autobiography of Ron Kovic, a paralyzed Vietnam War veteran who became an anti-war activist. Taking its title from Kovic's actual birthday, July 4, 1946, the book was adapted into a 1989 Academy Award winning film of the same name co-written by Oliver Stone and Ron Kovic, starring Tom Cruise as Kovic.

Born on the Fourth of July was written in Santa Monica, California during the fall of 1974 in exactly one month, three weeks and two days.^[1] It tells the story of Kovic's life growing up in Massapequa, New York, joining the Marines going to Vietnam, getting shot, finding himself wheelchair bound, and eventually starting a new life as an anti-war activist.

"I wrote all night long, seven days a week, single space, no paragraphs, front and back of the pages, pounding the keys so hard the tips of my fingers would hurt. I couldn't stop writing, and I remember feeling more alive than I had ever felt. Convinced that I was destined to die young, I struggled to leave something of meaning behind, to rise above the darkness and despair. I wanted people to understand. I wanted to share with them as nakedly and openly and intimately as possible what I had gone through, what I had endured.I wanted them to know what it really meant to be in a war — to be shot and wounded, to be fighting for my life on the intensive care ward — not the myth we had grown up believing. I wanted people to know about the hospitals and the enema room, about why I had become opposed to the war, why I had grown more and more committed to peace and nonviolence." — Ron Kovic, on writing his autobiography.^[1]

• Bruce Springsteen dedicated his 1978 performance of Darkness on the Edge of Town live at Winterland to Ron, saying that he read Born on the Fourth of July, and "loved the book a whole lot."
• Folk musician Tom Paxton adapted the book into a song of the same title.

1. ^ ^{a b} Born on the Fourth of July: The Long Journey Home Ron Kovic - accessed on 8 August 2005

• Births on July 4th

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