Title: The Unvarnished Truth
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.
Subjects: Poor, Autobiography, United States, 19th century, Biography, History, Popular literature, United states, biography, United states, social conditions, American literature, history and criticism, 19th century, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Historical, Reference, LITERARY CRITICISM, American, General, Herinneringen, Populaire literatuur
Places: United States
Time periods: 19th century