The American Newspaper Columnist

by Sam Riley

Overview

The figure of the newspaper columnist, which emerged in America in the mid-nineteenth century, plays a key role in modern newspapers. Columnists nowadays add a decidedly personal touch to the newspapers in which they appear—an important consideration in an increasingly impersonal, corporate, no-nonsense medium. This volume provides the most complete look available at the emergence of the columnist and at who the leading columnists have been from the Civil War era to the present. In total, 780 columnists and their work are examined chronologically—according to when their columns first appeared—within several categories: early (1800s), humor, column poets, syndicated political, other syndicated, local, and minority.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275958671
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/30/1998
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Lexile:	1340L (what's this?)

About the Author

SAM G. RILEY is Professor of Communication Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He teaches mainly newspaper and magazine writing, communication history, and communication law and ethics. He has written or edited 14 books, including Magazines of the American South (Greenwood, 1986), The Best of the Rest: Non-Syndicated Newspaper Columnists Select Their Best Work (Greenwood, 1993), and Biographical Dictionary of American Newspaper Columnists (Greenwood, 1995).

Table of Contents

Preface
Beginnings: Columnists of the 1800s
Humor Columnists
Column Poets
The Pundits: America's Syndicated Political Columnists
Other Syndicated Columnists
Local Columnists
Minority Columnists: Critical Mass at Last
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Describes the origins, development, and present condition of the niche in newspaper journalism that, like the longer feature stories, are designed to be interesting and entertaining rather than to convey news. Extends from the 1800s to the establishment of minority columnists. The final of three books Riley (communications, Virginia State U.) has produced on columns; a 1993 anthology of columns by local rather than syndicated columnists, and a 1995 biographical dictionary. He uses all three in his journalism course on the subject. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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