Journalism and the Novel
Truth and Fiction, 1700–2000

Focuses on notable journalists-turned-novelists who have worked on the margins of fact and fiction since the early eighteenth century.

Doug Underwood (Author)

9780521187541, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 23 December 2010

278 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.41 kg

"...students and general readers will find much to admire about the book...Underwood’s anecdotal flair, coupled with his conversational prose style, is congenial and informative."
-Jack Vespa, nbol-19.org

Literary journalism is a rich field of study that has played an important role in the creation of the English and American literary canons. In this original and engaging study, Doug Underwood focuses on the many notable journalists-turned-novelists found at the margins of fact and fiction since the early eighteenth century, when the novel and the commercial periodical began to emerge as powerful cultural forces. Writers from both sides of the Atlantic are discussed, from Daniel Defoe to Charles Dickens, and from Mark Twain to Joan Didion. Underwood shows how many literary reputations are built on journalistic foundations of research and reporting, and how this impacts on questions of realism and authenticity throughout the work of many canonical authors. This book will be of great interest to researchers and students of British and American literature.

Introduction
1. Journalism and the rise of fiction, 1700–1875: Daniel Defoe to George Eliot
2. Literary realism and the fictions of the industrialized press, 1850–1915: Mark Twain to Theodore Dreiser
3. Reporters-turned-novelists and the making of contemporary journalistic fiction, 1890–today: Rudyard Kipling to Joan Didion
4. The taint of journalistic literature and the stigma of the ink-stained wretch: Joel Chandler Harris to Dorothy Parker and beyond
Epilogue: the future of journalistic fiction and the legacy of the journalist-literary figures
Appendix: the major journalist-literary figures: their writings and positions in journalism.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]