The ART OF FACT : A HISTORICAL ANTHOLOGY OF LITERARY JOURNALISM

Rating:
Summary: The best survey of non-fiction and its development I've seen
Review: As a writer of non-fiction, I'm grateful to the editors of this book. It's the best and most complete survey of the development of non-fiction writing I've found, reaching back to Defoe for examples of techniques we've come to think of as recent developments non-fiction reporting, and moving through the "new journalism" writers to contemporary writers such as Ted Conover and Michael Winerip. The editors have written elegant prefaces not only to the book but to each of the dozens of writers included,giving biographical information, historical context, and information on the writing they've chosen to include (why they chose an early Hemingway column from the Toronto Star, for instance; the importance of Joseph Mitchell's profile on a bearded lady as opposed to his more well-known pieces). I would have liked to have seen something from Ian Frazier's Great Plains or Janet Malcolm's meditation on the art and impossibility of objective biography The Silent Woman, both of which push the craft of non-fiction writing into original territory. Nonetheless, this is a great book for students of non-fiction, non-fiction writers and especially for teachers of non-fiction. And as a collection of great writing, it's also great reading.

Rating:
Summary: The best survey of non-fiction and its development I've seen
Review: As a writer of non-fiction, I'm grateful to the editors of this book. It's the best and most complete survey of the development of non-fiction writing I've found, reaching back to Defoe for examples of techniques we've come to think of as recent developments non-fiction reporting, and moving through the "new journalism" writers to contemporary writers such as Ted Conover and Michael Winerip. The editors have written elegant prefaces not only to the book but to each of the dozens of writers included,giving biographical information, historical context, and information on the writing they've chosen to include (why they chose an early Hemingway column from the Toronto Star, for instance; the importance of Joseph Mitchell's profile on a bearded lady as opposed to his more well-known pieces). I would have liked to have seen something from Ian Frazier's Great Plains or Janet Malcolm's meditation on the art and impossibility of objective biography The Silent Woman, both of which push the craft of non-fiction writing into original territory. Nonetheless, this is a great book for students of non-fiction, non-fiction writers and especially for teachers of non-fiction. And as a collection of great writing, it's also great reading.