The unvarnished truth
Subtitle: personal narratives in nineteenth-century America
By: Ann Fabian.
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 255
Subjects: Autobiography; Poor -- United States -- Biography; United States -- History -- 19th century -- Biography
Description: "The practice of selling one's tale of woe to make a buck has long been a part of American culture. The Unvarnished Truth: Personal Narratives in Nineteenth-Century America is a powerful cultural history of how ordinary Americans crafted and sold their stories of hardship and calamity during the nineteenth century.

Ann Fabian examines the tales of beggars, convicts, ex-slaves, prisoners of the Confederacy, and others to explore cultural authority, truth-telling, and the nature of print media as the country was shifting to a market economy. This book describes the controversies surrounding these little-read tales and returns them to the social worlds where they were produced."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-246) and index.