A Sourcebook of American Literary Journalism - Representative Writers in an Emerging Genre

A wide range of writers are brought together for the first time in this discussion of an on-going, largely unrecognized American prose tradition: literary journalism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Such writing was not new journalism and therefore simply a type of journalism; nor was it factual fiction, merely a type of realistic fiction. Rather, it can be examined as a distinct literary form, a type of cultural expression that can be defined and characterized.

Thirty-five lively and literate essays by contributing scholars analyze major writers of this literary genre or writers known for a major work in the genre, and Thomas B. Connery provides short pieces for nineteen additional figures. The volume introduction discusses definitions and characteristics of literary journalism, with reference to the patterns of reality depicted, and identifies two main types: works characterized by immersion and shorter, more impressionistic pieces. The roots of this new journalism are traced, and ideas of the theorists of this genre are explicated. Connery also provides the results of his research and uncovers the primary sources of literary journalism.

List of contents

Preface
Introduction Discovering A Literary Form
The Writers Mark Twain
Richard Harding Davis
Stephen Crane
Jacob A. Riis
Abraham Cahan
Lincoln Steffens
George Ade
Hutchins Hapgood
William Hard
Theodore Dreiser
John Reed
Ring Lardner
Damon Runyon
Dorothy Day
Ernest Hemingway
James Agee
Joseph Mitchell
John Hersey
John Steinbeck
Lillian Ross
Truman Capote
Tom Wolfe
Gay Talese
Hunter S. Thompson
Michael Herr
Norman Mailer
Joe Eszterhas
C.D.B. Bryan
Jane Kramer
Richard Ben Cramer
John McPhee
Joan Didion
Bob Greene
Joe McGinniss
Tracy Kidder
Selected Bibliography
Index

About the author

THOMAS B. CONNERY is Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he teaches a course in Literary Journalism.

Product details

• Authors: Connery Thomas B.
• Assisted by: Thomas B. Connery (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 7 to 17
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.01.1992
• EAN: 9780313265945
• ISBN: 978-0-313-26594-5
• No. of pages: 424
• Weight: 737 g
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; USA, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Journalism, English, LITERARY CRITICISM / Reference, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Industries / Media & Communications, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Reference, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 19th Century, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, Press & journalism, Reference works, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, United States of America, USA, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, News media and journalism, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, The Arts: American Literature