Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

More than novels, plays, or poems, what journalists have written between assignments have been their autobiographies. The autobiographical impulse has seized police reporters, foreign correspondents, sportswriters, city editors, television news anchors--virtually every species of journalist that has ever existed. This book examines why journalists have been so drawn to the autobiographical form and what sorts of identities they have carved out for themselves within it. The author focuses on the autobiographies of eight journalists, including Jacob Riis' The Making of an American, Elizabeth Jordan's Three Rousing Cheers, Vincent Sheean's Personal History, Agness Underwood's Newswoman, and H.L. Mencken's Days trilogy. He analyzes the autobiographies not only as literary creations but also as cultural products. By connecting the autobiographies to the development of journalism as a profession, and, in the case of female journalists, to the struggle against traditional gender roles, he illuminates the complex interplay between private needs and public expectations in the autobiographical process. Although the story of a profession or calling is the most common type of modern autobiography, scholars have concentrated on other types. This book aims to fill part of the void. The first in-depth study of journalists as autobiographers, it suggests new ways to think about self, work, writing, and the culture that binds them together.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

An examination of the journalist as autobiographer, undertaken to suggest new ways to think and talk about journalists. The author attempts to show that journalists come close to fiction writers and that autobiographies by journalists have not been studied as literary creations and should be. Good thus looks at autobiographies as novels about journalism, attempts by journalists to justify themselves and to show that journalism was an honorable profession. The author considers both well-known journalists and those less well known, from Jacob Riis at the turn of the century to the publication of H. L. Mencken's diary, ed. by Charles A. Fecher (CH, Nov'90). In between are brief examinations of Julian Ralph, Samuel G. Blythe, Elizabeth Jordan, Joan Lowell, Agnes Underwood, and Vincent Sheean. The book is an introduction to a diverse array of journalists, with summaries of their lives and work. The subject matter is interesting but it is unclear what the book has achieved. Extensive footnotes. C. M. Leder; Mott Community College

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Howard Good (BA, literature, Bard College; MA, journalism, University of Iowa; Ph.D., American culture, University of Michigan) is Associate Professor of Journalism, SUNY, New Paltz. He has published Acquainted With the Night: The Image of Journalists in American Fiction, 1890-1930 and Outcasts: The Image of Journalists in Contemporary Film (Scarecrow, 1986, 1989), as well as numerous scholarly articles. He worked on daily newspapers in Michigan, North Carolina, and North Dakota.