RECOMMENDED BOOKS, ARTICLES
AND WEB SITES

Updated: 8-2006

Alphabetized List -- Journalists in Novels and Short Stories

NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES

Berry, Thomas Elliott, The Newspaper in the American Novel, 1900-1969, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Metuchen, N.J. 1970, 170 pages.

Black, Jay, "Ethics of the Fictional Journalist: How Novelists Portray Decision-making in the News Business," 1994. Emerson College Library.

Born, Donna, "The Image of the Woman Journalist in American Popular Fiction, 1890 to the Present," a Paper Presented to the Committee of the Association for Education in Journalism, Annual Convention, Michigan State University, East Lansing, August, 1981, pp. 1-45. Also, "The Woman Journalist of the 1920s and 1930s in Fiction and in Autobiography," presented to the Qualitative Studies Division, Association for Education in Journalism Annual Convention, Ohio, July 1982, pp. 1-24. Born was an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism at Central Michigan University.

Brennen, Bonnie Sue, "Peasantry of the Press: A History of American Newsworkers from Novels, 1919-1938," Thesis-Dissertation, 1993. University of Iowa Library.

Ghiglione, Loren, The American Journalist: Paradox of the Press (Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 1990), written for a Library of Congress exhibit on the image of the journalist, is one of the best resources for novels about journalism and journalists.

Good, Howard, Acquainted with the Night: The Image of Journalists in American Fiction, 1890-1930, is the definitive book on the image of the journalist in fiction (The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Metuchen, N.J. & London, 1986, 139 pages).. Also, Good's "The Image of War Correspondents in Anglo-American Fiction," Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 1986, Journalism Monograph, pp. 1-25.

Gregorski, Carri, Denny Wilkins, John Hanchette, Paul J. Spaeth, James Snyder, James Webb, "Ethical Journalism: Traditional Newsgathering, Journalism in Film and an Examination of 'All The President's Men.'" St. Bonaventure University, 2003. Thesis-Dissertation-Book.

Steve Hallock, Fiction or Truth,The Quill (Chicago, Ill.) v. 85, pp. 31-34, May, 1997. Just as cops and lawyers and coaches and politicians complain about how they are treated in newspaper stories, journalists lament their treatment at the hands of fiction authors. An inspection of six novels of newspapers or newspaper characters yielded some nuggets of reality, but these nuggets were hidden among the negative stereotypes, cliches and myths. The most troubling aspect of these books is the attitude toward journalism conveyed by the authors. If fiction mirrors society, there is little doubt the public distrusts the news media or that reporters are viewed as an arrogant pack feeding on society's ills.

Harrison, James Geraty, American Newspaper Journalism as Described in American Novels of the 19th century, Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1945.
Also, James G. Harrison's "Nineteenth-Century American Novels on American Journalism I," Journalism Quarterly, September 1945, Volume 22, Number 3, pp. 215-224, and "Nineteenth-Century American Novels on American Journalism II," Journalism Quarterly, December 1945, Volume 22, Number 4, pp. 335-345.

Klein, Margaret, "Journalists in Some Nineteenth Century Fiction," Thesis-Dissertation. 1929. OCLC: 56156160. Columbia University Libraries, New York.

Langner-Burns, Heidi M., "The Image of Journalists in American Film and Fiction from 1975 to 1987: An Application of Leo Lowenthal's Model," School of Journalism, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1989.

Lessig, Hugh, News Noir Web site is an entertaining look at the journalist in fiction. As Lessig puts it: "Hardboiled tales and newspapers. They've gone together from the beginning. The River City Blade is a fictional paper, devoted to the spirit of the hardboiled newspaperman. Its sister paper is called The Frisco Foil, and I've based a few stories there -- when I feel like writing about the West Coast. Whether it's the Foil or the Blade, whether it was Kennedy of the Free Press or Kolchak of Night Stalker fame, reporters always stick their notebooks where they don't belong."

Lutes, Jean Marie, "Front-Page Girls: Women Journalists in American Culture and Fiction, 1880-1930," Cornell University Press, 2007. This is the first study of the newspaperwoman in American literary culture at the turn of the 20th century. It examines the relationship of real-life reporters such as Nellie Bly and Ida B. Wells with fictional characters such as Henrietta Stackpole, the lady correspondent in Henry James' "Portrait of a Lady." It chronicles the exploits of a a neglected group of American women writers and uncovers an alternative reporter-novelist tradition that runs counter to the more familiar story of gritty realism generated in male-dominated newsrooms. It also explores how women's journalism shaped the path from news to novels for women writers.
Also, Lutes' Sob Sisterhood Revisited," (American Literary History - Volume 15, Number 3, Fall, 2003, pp. 504-532, Oxford University Press), and "Into the Madhouse with Nellie Bly: Girl Stunt Reporting in Late Nineteenth Century America" (American Quarterly, Volume 54, Number 2, June 2002, pp. 217-253).

McClure, H.H., "Inside Views of Fiction: III -- The Newspaper Novel," Bookman, Volume XXXI, March-August 1910, pp. 60-61.

McKeen, William, Heroes and Villains: A Study of Journalists in American Novels Published Between 1915 and 1975, Indiana University, 1977 (submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters of Arts Degree in the School of Journalism, Indiana University, August, 1977. p. 1-121). Also, "Tough Guys with Typewriters," Studies in Popular Culture, Spring, 1980.

SCOOP! JOURNALISTS IN FICTION Web site. "Journalists appear in fiction in many guises and play many roles. Sometimes they provide central characters, often they intrude on the action, their attentions as unwelcome as they often are in real life. Scoop! gathers together these appearances under a variety of themes, some amusing, some trivial, some giving an insight into how the Press works and how it is seen to impact on our society."

Windrow, John Luther, "Getting a Bad Press: the Image of the Journalists in Fiction Written by Journalists in the 1980's." Thesis-dissertation, 1996. OCLC: 63290954. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Library.

Weinberg, Steve, formerly a professor of journalism at the University of Missouri, started collecting novels of and by journalists in 1983. He presented his collection to the University of Missouri-Columbia Libraries in 1989 and periodically supplements the collections with new additions. There are more than 830 volumes in the collection. All titles are cataloged and available through MERLIN, the University's online catalog. His articles on the subject include"The Reporter in the Novel" for the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), November-December 1997, and "My Great White Whale, or the Great Newspaper Novel," for New York Times (Aug. 27, 1989, sec. 7, p. 1).