The Art of Fact: A Historical Anthology of Literary Journalism
Kevin Kerrane and Ben Yagoda, journalists and journalism teachers, saw a need for a textbook that celebrated and organized outstanding examples of literary journalism. In this compendious volume spanning 372 years, the editors focus on the evolution of New Journalism, a term which, we learn, "was originally coined by Matthew Arnold in 1887 to describe the style of Stead'sPall Mall Gazette: brash, vivid, personal, reform-minded, and--occasionally, from Arnold's conservative viewpoint--'featherbrained.'"The editors positionDaniel Defoe'sThe True and Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of the Late Jonathan Wild(1725) as the prototype for the true-crime narrative. The collection's first section, entitled "Pioneers," includes such staples as Boswell'sLife of Samuel Johnson, Walt Whitman'sSpecimen Days, andJack London's daring 1902 exposé of life among the city of London's impoverished East Enders. Brief introductions to each selection set the historical context and explain innovative aspects of the piece. The second section compares two distinctly contemporary journalistic points of view: the "I Am a Camera" school and the unabashedly subjective approach exemplified byNorman MailerandHunter S. Thompson, among others. "Style as Substance" makes up the lively and often moving third section.Many rich voices describe all angles of the human experience in this impressive volume. Through authorPiers Paul Readwe crash-land with a Uruguayan rugby team in the Andes;Lillian Rossgives us a notoriously devastating portrait ofErnest Hemingway;Ted Conoverassimilates into illegal Mexican culture and smuggles us back and forth across the border. The only anthology of its kind,The Art of Factalmost doubles as a travel book.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.