A History of American Literary Journalism: The Emergence of a Modern Narrative Form

During the 1960s, such works as Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem were cited as examples of the “new journalism.” True stories that read like novels, they combined the journalist's task of factual reporting with the art of fictional narration.

Yet as John C. Hartsock shows in this revealing study, the roots of this distinctive form of writing—whether called new journalism, literary journalism, or creative nonfiction—can be traced at least as far bac...