The Literature of Journalism: Text and Context

This unique critical anthology focuses on eighteen significant works that, collectively, represent the evolution of journalism in the twentieth century. From George Orwell’s early works on poverty to Tracy Kidder’s tale of designing a new computer, from Lillian Ross’s controversial profiles and Truman Capote’s controversial "nonfiction novel" to Gabriel García Márquez’s subversive Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor and Tom Wolfe’s "New Journalism"—the works excerpted in this volume represent a wide range of voices and journalistic approaches. More than an anthology, The Literature of Journalism: Text and Context shows these works in their historical, social, journalistic, and critical contexts. The commentary on each work describes the events and social conditions that inspired it, how the writer came to the subject, how the work was researched and written, how it has been received critically, and how the writer influenced and was influenced by other writers.

R. Thomas Berner is a professor of journalism and American studies at the Pennsylvania State University. He has written several textbooks on contemporary newspaper editing and writing, including an examination of how journalists use rhetorical devices in writing literary feature stories. Berner has worked on newspapers in Pennsylvania and has degrees in English and journalism. His essays on various contributors to the literature of journalism have appeared in A Sourcebook of American Literary Journalism, the Dictionary of Literary Biography, and American Journalism.