Literary Journalism: A New Collection of the Best American Nonfiction

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A range of classics of literary journalism here, written over the last century by some masters of the genre. Great reading and strong models of how to write . . .

Good introduction to the genre. This is an academic anthology that includes some financial and analytical pieces which are fairly dry, a comparison of American and Russian farming which lacked human interest for me as a reader, and several deeply personal pieces. The character studies were much more appealing. I read the introductory material with professional interest and then skipped around to the examples which interested me personally.

Thank you

TERRIFIC! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

A number of years ago, Mark Kramer let me sit in on a narrative nonfiction seminar he taught at Harvard. I was running a think tank at Harvard's Kennedy School and I was getting restless. I wanted to write -- not just academic stuff, but stories that ordinary intelligent people would read. I got this book to accompany the class. Mark was a first-rate teacher. In class we read each other's work and critiqued it. Mark marked up everyone's pieces, usually with an ocean of ink. But here's the thing. Every mark not only offered a tip, but a whole way of looking at storytelling.I ended up leaving my position because I wanted to write the kinds of pieces in this book, which Mark Kramer and Norman Sims have gathered. Reading this book is like sitting in on Mark Kramer's class. Every piece offers a bunch of lessons. Most of the lessons are about details. Not just what someone looks like or where the event took place or what happened next, but the telling details that most people wouldn't notice but which symbolize the whole piece. These details can be found, by anyone willing to do the hard work of reporting and observing and asking questions.This is a Michelin's Guide to writing stories. When you read Joseph Mitchell, Calvin Trillin, Susan Orlean, John McPhee, Joe Nocera, Brent Staples, and the other great journalists in this colume, you see how the pros do it. The two prefatory essays and the shorter introductions to the pieces show you how to pay attention to the pros. The rest is up to you.Since meeting Mark Kramer and reading this book, I have written narrative works about civil rights ( Nobody Turn Me Around: A People's History of the 1963 March on Washington ) and baseball ( The Last Nine Innings  and  Little League, Big Dreams ), as well as a number of magazine pieces and ghostwritten works. But, thanks to the inspiration of Mark Kramer, I have also developed a complete system for writing, which is contained in  The Writing Code: The Only Comprehensive Guide To Writing Well in All Fields (The Writing Code Series)  and a number of other ebooks.Bottom line: Mark Kramer and Norman Sims have the right idea. Read the greats, emulate the greats, work hard like the greats, and you can do some pretty good work yourself.

Ted Conover's piece on Africa, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's "Trina and Trina" -- well, basically everything the editors chose was outstanding. What I especially valued were the introductions on the art of "literary journalism" and the introductions to each of the journalists. I'm teaching a workshop this fall at The Writers Center in Bethesda and I'm putting on the reading list with a great big star.

Pros:ComprehensiveGreat examples of literary journalistic workHighlights the importance of a writer's voice in factual writingCons:Too much meaningless listing of names by the authorToo much unnecessarily perplexing vocabulary; egotistical tone of the authorNeutral:Very specific