100 books every journalist must read
The Universal Journalist, David Randall
In this list, “Interpretative Reporting” shows you what American journalism education was like for most of the last century; “Inside Reporting” presents a popular current text. “The Universal Journalist” offers the British perspective. It will be instructive to see which reporting guidelines sound familiar to American ears and which jar. The book takes a more jaded approach to the realities of journalism than the typical U.S. textbook. To me, that makes it all the more appealing.
Other voice: Camilla Turner, Press Gazette (naming it the sixth most-popular among the trade journal’s Twitter followers). “Randall challenges old attitudes, procedures and techniques, and emphasises that good journalism demands a range of skills in order to successfully operate in an industry where ownership, technology and information are constantly changing.”
All newspapers should appear with a disclaimer: ‘This paper, and the hundreds of thousands of words it contains, has been produced in about 15 hours by a group of fallible human beings, working out of cramped offices while trying to find out about what happened in the world from people who are sometimes reluctant to tell us and, at other times, positively obstructive. Its content has been determined by a series of subjective judgements made by reporters and executives, tempered by what they know to be the editor’s, owner’s and readers’ prejudices. Some stories appear here without essential context as this would make them less dramatic or coherent, and some of the language employed has been deliberately chosen for its emotional impact, rather than accuracy. Some features are printed solely to attract certain advertisers.
Video Journalism for the Web, Kurt Lancaster
While video in general is growing online, video production by news sites — particularly by formerly print-oriented newsrooms — has had the same problem for many years now: No one watches. Well, not no one, and not every every video. At my former paper, any video that involved the Cleveland Browns did well; I was occasionally tempted to just put up 20-minute videos of a stationary football helmet to test how long our audience would last before clicking away. My bet was at least 10 minutes. But away from the Browns, we scraped for eyeballs. Other papers went through the same string of failures — trying to mimic TV news, running 8-minute interviews of our own journalists, putting days of production into 3-minute reports on obscure stories. One big lesson was that people did not come to our site for the kind of video they got from TV news; another was that the techniques of TV news did not all work for video that was native to online. Kurt Lancaster’s book acknowledges that, and comes recommended by a colleague who know a lot more about online video than I do. (Also recommended, but available only via iTunes: “MediaStorm Field Guide to Powerful Multimedia Storytelling.”)
Right now, newspapers are in a position to experiment with a variety of news styles online. Broadcast news stations are fixed in their style by tradition and decades of making it work.
Virtual Unreality, Charles Seife
Human gullibility is an eternal theme, explored elsewhere on this list in “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.” Charles Seife’s book brings the topic up to date by focusing on the ways in which the internet has made the spread of misinformation faster and its droppings more persistent than ever. This is an important lesson for journalists, especially because of two trends: the demand for speed in publishing, which pushes reporters to snap up online answers rather than waiting for callbacks; and the reliance on aggregation, which can repeat a falsehood so often that it overwhelms the truth. It’s become a commonplace for teachers — not just of journalism, but all fields — to warn students not to rely on Wikipedia as a source. “Virtual Unreality” not only reinforces that message but shows how the entire internet is infested. The point is not that if you stay away from the net, you’re safe. Instead, it’s that we need to tune our bullshit detectors to pick up a new set of tricks.
Other voice: Dwight Garner, New York Times. “One of Mr. Seife’s bedrock themes is the Internet’s dismissal, for good and ill, of the concept of authority. On Wikipedia, your Uncle Iggy can edit the page on black holes as easily as Stephen Hawking can. Serious reporting, another form of authority, is withering because it’s so easy to cut and paste facts from other writers, or simply to provide commentary, and then game search engine results so that readers find your material first.”
A person’s belief in any sort of fringe idea can gain strength–and become unshakable–thanks to social bonds with other true believers. Any idea, no matter how bizarre, can seem mainstream if you’re able to find a handful of others who will believe along with you.
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Edward R. Tufte
Very bad things happened to informational graphics at the end of the last century. Newspapers used more and more color ink, and that often meant that the “informational” part of graphics was buried under candy canes and beach balls. Meanwhile, personal publishing software seduced many folks into believing that they could produce charts with a few clicks and fewer thoughts. Against this tide of cruft came Edward R. Tufte. Read this book, absorb its lessons, and you will never be the same again. (For one thing, you’ll do a lot more wincing as you recognize the mistakes still being made.)
Other voice: Joshua Yaffa, Washington Monthly. “Tufte is a philosopher king who reigns over his field largely because he invented it. For years, graphic designers were regarded as decorators, whose primary job was to dress up facts with pretty pictures. Tufte introduced a reverence for math and science to the discipline and, in turn, codified the rules that would create a new one, which has come to be called, alternatively, information design or analytical design. His is often the authoritative word on what makes a good chart or graph, and over the years his influence has changed the way places like the Wall Street Journal and NASA display data.”
Graphical excellence is the well-designed presentation of interesting data — a matter of substance, of statistics, and of design. Graphical excellence consists of complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision, and efficiency.
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Visual Impact in Print, Angus McDougall & Gerald Hurley
“Visual Impact” has been called (over and over again) the “definitive pictured-editing book.” McDougall was one of the giants of the University of Missouri’s eminent photojournalism program. The principles he lays out here remain true for print today; we can only wish that he’d had a chance to explore the best ways to display photography online, where slideshows reduce the ability to juxtapose images and the array of screen sizes and browsers play hob with designers’ intent. I must admit, however, that I was surprised when I reread the book in preparation for this list. In a section on retouching, the authors cite with apparent approval a photo manipulation that completely blacked out a bright light behind a subject’s head and turned the man’s bright white, brand-new cap into a scuffed and smudged one, to remove “serious distractions.” Such blatant altering of an image wasn’t unusual, as anyone who’s had a chance to dig through old newspaper photo libraries knows — the black-and-white prints often have white or black paint swashed on. But the book’s generous attitude shocked me. In the same section, the authors warn photographers that it’s improper to ask a subject to move so they can get a distracting line out of the background of a shot — instead, they say, rely on the retoucher to paint it out. Would-be journalists should note that the industry’s standards regarding such things have tightened considerably even as digital cameras and photo-editing software have made manipulation much easier.
Other voice: University of Missouri obituary of McDougall. “He pressed his photo students to become adept in all aspects of journalism, especially visual reporting, writing, design and management so they would have the credibility to cause change in newsroom thinking. Many of his students moved into leadership roles in the nation’s metropolitan newspapers. McDougall’s emphasis on meaningful photography in lockstep with supportive words and presented with impact is his legacy.”
The significant portrait reflects more than facial architecture. It reveals inner strength and character. … But experience and environment also mold the man. And, to a degree, these important influences can be visually recorded. With or without symbols or props, a valid background can quickly identify the subject’s work or his interests. … The environmental portrait has another plus: in familiar surroundings, the subject is more likely to be himself.
Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media, Pamela Newkirk
“Within the Veil” looks at newsrooms from the perspective of African-American journalists, but what it has to say about their successes and their continuing struggles has lessons for all minorities and women who are the “other” in traditional newsrooms. And, of course, it has lessons for those whose skin color or gender or class or college make them the “normal” newsroom leaders.
Other voice: Michael Corbin, Baltimore City Paper. “In today’s discussion of race, Newkirk’s book makes a heroic effort to clearly explain how our continuing racial dilemma plays itself out in and is influenced by the news media. … In striving for a balance between advocate and critic, between booster and judge, Newkirk slips now and again, but she has produced an ambitious book that enlightens even when it falls short…. As a journalist, she tells a good tale with detailed facts and prescient quotes; as an academic, she constructs architecture of context. She succeeds more readily when functioning as a journalist. Virtually free of academic dryness, the book is alive with her passion and commitment.”
Any discussion of race is difficult, in part because of our clashing racial perceptions, and largely as a result of restrictions that have been placed on the debate. This book is an attempt to set up new parameters for constructive and meaningful dialogue on race in the news media.
Working, Studs Terkel
Terkel started out as an actor, doing an early TV show called “Stud’s Place” that was a prime example of the laid-back Chicago School. He went on to a long career as an interviewer on Chicago radio. His interviewing skills were turned to oral history in many books — if you wanted to read “Division Street: America,” “Hard Times,” “The Good War” or one of his others, I won’t quibble. I chose “Working” for this list because it is not only a prime example of his skill but also a reminder of the importance of moving journalism beyond talking to big shots or focusing on traditional “big news.” Here, he interviews men and women — rich and poor — about their jobs. The mere act of putting CEO and assembly-line worker in the same collection is a political statement about equality.
Other voice: Marshall Berman, New York Times. “It is not clear how Terkel gets so close to these people. Indeed, he makes it obscurer than it need be by editing his own presence out of most of the interviews he has transcribed, so that his people’s stories generally read as monologues instead of the human encounters they quite clearly are. Still, it is clear that he is giving off something that encourages people to associate freely, to mention ‘second thoughts’ that they would normally keep under wraps, to expose their often precarious and frightening inner lives, to take emotional risks.”
Most of the young girls are on the bonus system — piecework. … That’s a dull, steady pace all day long. Entirely too much. The other day we had a big rouse-up. Who’s getting the best orders, who’s not? … I’m just there to do a day’s work.
The World of Jimmy Breslin, Jimmy Breslin
Of the many collections of Breslin’s work as a New York newspaper columnist, I prefer this one from the early years. I rail elsewhere in this list against the creeping orthodoxy of journalism ethics. A distrust of the reader’s intelligence and an amnesia regarding the craft’s history have made a fetish of fact over truth. In news reports, I hold the banner of fact high. Columns, however, had always been a harbor for the truth that’s truer than the facts. Breslin wades through that world.
Other voice: John Avlon, The Daily Beast. “This one’s a dispatch from a different era when newspaper columnists knocked on doors, drank during the day, and wrote like unsentimental angels. … The best of Breslin is better than anyone else—still the heavyweight champion after all these years.”
We had a policy of paying nobody and the bill collectors got so bad that one morning we woke up with the finance-company guy sitting at the kitchen table. It was unnerving, but we grabbed the bum and threw him into the shower and Max held him in while I turned on the cold water. It fixed the finance-company guy, but it was a tough way to start off the day.
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Writing for Story, Jon Franklin
I yield to a host of my friends and colleagues (including the reviewer cited below, the sparkling Miriam Hill) who called this the best of the best for long-form nonfiction. Though it’s a writing manual, it also includes examples of his work, most notably “Mrs. Kelly’s Monster.” The Baltimore Sun story about brain surgery won the first-ever Pulitzer for feature writing.
Other voice: Miriam Hill, Poynter. ” ‘This guy is a writing genius!’ I emit out loud as I devour Jon Franklin’s bible on narrative writing, ‘Writing for Story.’ I admire this accomplished author who won the Pulitzer Prize… twice! Beyond his riveting stories, Jon Franklin is generous about sharing his knowledge with other writers. In ‘Writing for Story,’ he dissects his masterpieces line-by-line in ‘The Annotated Monster’ and ‘The Annotated Ballad.’ He shares the writing formula he created to guide the writer toward a successful narrative story: 1. Complication, 2. Development, 3. Resolution.”
Obviously, if you can’t think your story through you can’t write it convincingly. That’s why I so smugly assert that Hemingway, Steinbeck and Shakespeare used outlines. I’ve read their stuff, and it has integrity — that quality of all hanging together, and being an interrelated, organic whole.
The Years with Ross, James Thurber
The New Yorker was not the most popular magazine — not with behemoths like the Time/Life stable around — nor the one that represented the most blatant statement about one’s tastes — there are political magazines, on the one end, and Al Goldstein’s Screw, on the other, that made bolder declarations when splayed on one’s coffee table. But it was the most popular magazine that made a statement about taste. And that was due to Harold Ross, the sublimely talented roster he assembled, and the reputation he left behind. The bonus of reading The New Yorker’s history in this book is that you also get a taste of the style of one of Ross’s stable, James Thurber. He’s best known as the greatest American humorist since Mark Twain, but he also is a dab hand with factual material.
Other voice: Jill Abramson, on NPR. “It is Thurber’s book The Years with Ross that every journalist should have. It chronicles the restless genius and sometimes frustrating ways of legendary New Yorker editor Harold Ross, who brought together an extraordinary cavalcade of talent (including Thurber) but somehow managed to keep his cast of divas productive. For inspiration, I reread the book right before I became executive editor of The New York Times, finding lessons in Ross’ relentless perfectionism and famously exhaustive margin notes.”
Ik Shuman … was placed, for a time on Ross’s highest pedestal. Ik had helped him work out ‘a philosophy on payment to contributors.’ Ik told me in a letter, ‘The more we spent on the magazine, the longer we held contributors, the greater grew the circulation and the higher grew the advertising rate. We raised every contributor, feeling out our way, and I once figured that for every dollar we spent then, we got back three dollars in revenue.’ This, to Ross, was one of the miracles of money, one of the wonder of free enterprise. I used to hear him bawling over the phone in his office, ‘I’ll bring Shuman I want you to meet him. He’s finally making some sense out of this place.’
I’d add “The Paper: The Life and Death of the New York Herald Tribune,” by Richard Kluger. The Trib was the great newspaper of the mid-’60s, with an oversized impact on our notions of quality — and effective — journalism. Too bad the numbers didn’t add up.
Thanks for commenting, Ed. I do have Jim Bellows’ book on the list, which includes his take as editor of the Trib. And Stanley Walker’s City Editor.
Some good books here, but some glaring omissions that I didn’t immediately find: Hiroshima by John Hersey, The Face of War by Martha Gellhorn, A Bright, Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan. Something from Richard Harding Davis and Stephen Crane.
Good choices, Chris. I decided I covered Harding Davis with The First Casualty, and I think I remember him being in the Treasury of Great Reporting. I was a bit concerned about over-representing war reporting.
“Precision Journalism”, by Phil Meyer. This 1972 book launched the idea that reporters should use social science methods like polling and statistical analysis, and led to the widespread adoption today of data journalism in newsrooms around the world.
Thanks for the suggestion, Steve. I read that back in journalism school when I considered applying my computer science minor to a newsroom job. I went with the Data Journalism Handbook for the list, but you’re right, Meyer’s book launched the era of data journalism.
I agree about omitting Gellhorn.
Of your 100, only 18 are written or edited or about women. This seems unbalanced to me, given the preponderance of women in this industry, Nellie Bly onward. How about Marguerite Higgins?
Or the extraordinarily brave war reporter Marie Colvin or Janine Giovanni?
http://www.amazon.com/On-Front-Line-Collected-Journalism/dp/0007487967
I did the same count you did, Caitlin. It’s a concern. Some of the collections that are edited by men do, however, include women as contributors, so it’s not as lopsided as the count suggests. I considered adding a collection devoted solely to female journalists — the one already on my shelves is “Brilliant Bylines” by Barbara Belford, which includes short biographies. I wondered, though, if that might seem tokenism.
I would add my Ohio Wesleyan journalism professor’s book – Edwards, Verne. 1970. Journalism in a Free Society, Wm. C. Brown Co. Publishers.
I add the Journalist Code I once read – “If your Mother says she loves you, check it out.”
Thanks, Ann. That quote, by the way, comes from the (former) City News Bureau of Chicago (says this Chicago kid).
I’d certainly rethink In Cold Blood, given later information on how Capote cooked some of it. Ditto All the President’s Men, which played a little loose with narrative fact as a way to tee up the movie deal. And some of those j-school textbooks are by people who never wrote more than a memo or a term paper in their lives? No way do they belong. And lots of those books on this list are woefully out of date.
It Happened One Night, the Titanic book, deserves a mention. It was very early quality non-fiction narrative. And doesn’t anyone even remember Psmith: Journalist by Wodehouse, a classic in the genre?
James, I’m not sure who you’re referring to regarding the textbook authors. I explain my decisions regarding In Cold Blood and all the President’s Men in the list: Knowing those books, it seems to me, is essential to understand their impact on the craft.
I would add:
“Smiling Through the Apocalypse: Esquire’s History of the Sixties” – collects much of Esquire’s landmark journalism from that decade by Gay Talese, Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe and others.
“America: What Went Wrong?” by Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele – the only book I can think of that became an issue in a presidential campaign, in 1992, over its analysis of how the American middle class was losing out. (The same authors revisited that theme a couple of years ago in “The Betrayal of the American Dream.”)
“The Selling of the President 1968” by Joe McGinniss – the first book to look behind how candidates are packaged and marketed, as they’ve been ever since.
“What Liberal Media?” by Eric Alterman – the first book that really pushed back against the conservative meme that “the media are all liberals.”
Anything by Roger Angell, whose New Yorker reporting on baseball is unparalleled.
Michael, thanks for commenting. Esquire writers are already well represented on the list — not counting Mailer, who’s not one of my favorites. I admire Bartlett and Steele, but I couldn’t find a place for them on the list; worth thinking about again.
I’d have to add William Shirer’s Berlin Diary. He was in the belly of the beast, reporting on Hitler’s rise to power — he even accompanied the Wehrmacht on their drive into France — and then he joined Murrow in the early days of radio news. And his Rise and Fall of the Third Reich showed that some journalists do recognize the need to go back and do a much deeper version of their initial reporting.
Hmm. I recently reread Shirer’s Rise and Fall and was put off by his homophobia.
Give Berlin Diary a try. It’s “pre-history” in that while we know what all of this means and how it will turn out, Shirer doesn’t, so you get a great sense of how difficult it was for journalists on the scene and everyone else to understand where Hitler was headed.
What’s missing from Berlin Diary are the actual stories Shirer wrote. He’s there at all of the major Nazi rallies, at every step in Hitler’s rise to power, he repeatedly describes the look on Hitler’s face as he is standing a few yards away, but he has to deal with Goebbels and the censors, so while we read what he is thinking, we don’t know what he is telling his readers. He’s aware that Jews are in trouble and trying to get out of Europe, but you don’t know if he ever wrote about, e.g. He eventually leaves, a year before Pearl Harbor, in part because he realizes he can’t tell his readers what is happening (and in part because he fears the Germans are about to arrest him as a spy).
Thanks for a heroic achievement in concocting this list. I haven’t had the time to truly digest, analyze, contemplate specific trade-offs, etc., but off the top here are some things I would have considered.
Edmund Wilson, “The American Earthquake.” Remarkable reporting and writing about the 1920s and 30s Saturation reporting and New Journalism decades before they came into fashion.
“Speaking of Journalism,” ed. William Zinsser. Corby Kummer’s relatively brief piece “Editors and Writers” is one of the single best things I’ve ever read on the craft of editing, a much tougher topic to talk about than how to write well.
Norman Mailer, “Miami and the Siege of Chicago.” You don’t like Mailer? Tough. Too influential and important to ignore. This is his best non-fiction.
Joan Diddion, “We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live.” (anthology)
Nan Robertson, “The Girls in the Balcony.” History of discrimination against women at the NYT.
Kenneth Tynan, “Profiles.” Master of the form.
Jack Newfield, “The Education of Jack Newfield”
“The New Journalism,” ed. Tom Wolfe; “The Literary Journalists,” ed. Norman Sims. Two fine anthologies. Repeats stuff on your list but worth owning.
“The Reporter as Artist: A Look at the New Journalism Controversy,” ed. Ronald Weber. Fantastic overview, valuable not only for examples of personal journalism but for discussions, critiques, interviews and dissents.
John Reed, “10 Days that Shook the World.” Classic all the way around.
Seymour Krim, “Missing a Beat.,” ed. Mark Cohen. A highly influential and original voice growing out of the beat generation who was already forgotten by his death in 1989. This is a recent anthology but I’d encourage folks to scour used book stores for Krim’s own collections like “Views of a Nearsighted Cannoneer,” “Shake it For the World, Smartass,” etc.
Ralph Ellison, “Shadow and Act.” OK – Ellison’s essays aren’t conventional reporting, but no book will teach you more about the American experience, culture and race and therefore no book is more important for those who need to understand American culture, which is to say journalists.
Roger Angell, “Game Time.” An A+ anthology by the best baseball writer ever. Period. Full Stop. (Coda: Tom Boswell of the Washington Post is equally great on baseball and golf and it’s worth looking for his collections “How Life Imitates the World Series,” “Strokes of Genius” and “Why Time Begins on Opening Day.”
Solid choices, Mark. Thanks.
The “old editor” was right when he recommended the Bible and Shakespeare. Whether you’re an atheist or devout believer, every journalist should be up to speed on the literary and cultural allusions that have come into the language from the Bible: 40 days and 40 nights, manna from heaven, etc. Same goes for Shakespeare. And I would add Greek and Roman mythology. Too many journalists seem clueless at basic references.
In terms of books, I’ve recommended to many young (and not so young) journalists William Manchester’s “The Glory and the Dream,” a political AND cultural history of the United States covering the 1920s to early ’70s. I don’t know about anybody else’s high school education, but too often history classes ran out of time as they approached the World Wars and shortchanged all but the most basic stuff. The result: a relative “black hole” of knowledge on anything from that period on until the person was old enough to follow “current events.”
Don, I agree that journalists should have a basic cultural awareness. I don’t agree that such requires reading the Bible and Shakespeare. Knowing chapter and verse for manna from heaven won’t improve anyone’s writing or reporting. But I might even go along with the suggestion — if older journalists would agree that they must keep up to date with youth culture as well. For every young reporter who doesn’t know enough about post-War history, I can match you with older journalists who are still peppering their copy with allusions drawn from movies, songs, TV shows and books that are unknown to readers under 35.
An excellent suggestion, John. As an older journalist (23 years in the biz), I still try to read at least two books on the bestsellers list, see most of the major blockbuster films in the theater and listen to the songs that go viral. As for TV, I can’t stomach the reality shows, but the rest I watch on Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/YouTube/iTunes. Now I just need to find a way to become immortal, so I can find the time do even more.
Before you say, oh, Jesus, who let Hunter S. Thompson in the room, please consider Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist / Gonzo Letters Volume II 1968-1976. These are the personal correspondences of a journalist at the height of his craft, committed to his craft at all costs, battling for truth and expenses.
Ed, I let Hunter in the room with “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail,” already. The Gonzo Letters are interesting, though.
Love your list. I am not a journalist, only a reader who is fascinated by reporting, a gift from my parents who let me listen to Morrow when I was but a boy and got me hooked on new for life. Thanks for including Mencken, introduced to me by my uncle, a journalist, whose collection of Mencken I have in addition to my own copies. And thanks for Liebling, whose Earl of Louisiana was my young introduction to my own home state and city, and whose writing showed me what great expository, lively prose was all about.
So glad you included Edna Buchanan, Mike Royko, Studs Terkel and Ernie Pyle. These were the people I idolized when I first entered the field. Others I would recommend:
“Front Row at the White House: My Life And Times” by Helen Thomas
“Life on the Death Beat: A Handbook for Obituary Writers” by Alana Baranick, Jim Sheeler and Stephen Miller
“Thank You, Mr. President: A White House Notebook” by A. Merriman Smith
“City Room” by Arthur Gelb
“Late Edition: A Love Story” by Bob Greene
“Deadline” by James Reston
and
“My First Year as a Journalist: Real-World Stories from America’s Newspaper and Magazine Journalists” by Dianne Selditch
Thanks for the suggestions, Jade. And on behalf of my former colleague at The Plain Dealer, Alana Baranick, special thanks for mentioning Life on the Death Beat.
Alana is amazing, and her co-authors are award-winners as well (Jim even won the Pulitzer). If any young journalist wants to learn how to become an obit writer, this is the book to read first.
Disappointing that Dick McCord’s The Chain Gang didn’t make the list. A great read into Gannett’s shady history of crushing independents.
I’d never heard of McCord’s book before, Patrick. Which is a surprise, because my mom grew up in Peshtigo, north of Green Bay, and I spent a lot of summers up there so I’m somewhat familiar with the saga of the Green Bay papers. I’ll give it a look. Thanks!
No love for Charles Kuralt? It was Kuralt, not Woodward or Bernstein, who made me want to become a journo.
Thanks for the comment, Sam. I’m a print guy, myself, and had to fight that bias in assembling the list. Also had some concern about tilting the broadcast focus too much toward CBS, same reason I bypassed Cronkite’s autobiography. But worth a second thought.
As soon as you listed an SND annual, I gave up on this list.
The SND annual is the museum of modern journalistic decay. Your description of the “evolution” of design is laughable. What actually happened: A bunch of people who couldn’t hack it as editors came up with a way to redefine the work and to make editing of lower priority.
The result: A 40-year con game in which papers continue to claim they “attract” readers with their design, even though all circulation and sales numbers indicate otherwise. Some might call this “lying.”
The credibility of your list dropped to zero with that inclusion. I’m sure many pseudojournalists and others trying to cling to a level of self-importance will ruminate deeply about this list, but I’ve seen what I need to see.
In addition:
“Of your 100, only 18 are written or edited or about women. This seems unbalanced to me …”
Quotas as a guideline for quality — mmmkay. Someone must not have read much Ray Bradbury.
The call for quotas — another example of the total failings of modern journalism.
Hi, Bob! I feel honored to get my very own Robert Knilands trolling comment. This blog has made the big time, apparently. (For those of you who don’t know, Mr. Knilands is a frequent sniper on Internet forums about journalism, particularly about design.)
That’s a pretty weak counterargument. I had expected better, but I guess anyone who includes an SND annual in a list of must-reads has some issues.
Back to the oh-so-horrible-omissions, aka any book a self-important journalist DEMANDS inclusion for: I actually fished Roger Angell’s “Late Innings” out of the pile just a couple of weeks ago. There was time only to flip through a few random pages, but I remember it being an above-average read years ago. The big disappointment today was seeing the “circle the wagons” mentality that plagues far too much of what passes for sportswriting today. Nevertheless, I plan to get the book out again in the future, as I fully expect it will be several levels above the sewage that flows through today’s “sports” sections, many of which have sold out to weak social commentary and lame comedy routines.
Also, the page designers who are blissfully ignorant about yellow journalism and what it entailed should read:
“Emery, Edwin. The Press and America (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.), 1962.”
Stunning omission: ‘Byline: Ernest Hemingway’ – any journalist who wants to learn how to tell great stories can learn something here.
Bob, comments like yours are a good reason for lists like this — I’m finding out about great reads I haven’t seen on any similar lists. Thanks!
Homicide by David Simon is vital. So is The Word by Rene Capon–it is the single best book for a fledgling journalist–or any writer–to read. And Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is overrated from a journalistic perspective. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail is much better. McGovern’s campaign manager called it the least factual and most accurate depiction of the campaign for good reason.
I’ve heard a lot of support for Homicide. I’d never heard of Capon’s book. Regarding Fear and Loathing — I take your point, and comparing Boys on the Bus with Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail would be interesting. Thanks for your suggestions, Bruce.
How many of the books on this list are still in publication? I was searching for books on Nellie Bly a few years ago, and I never saw that one. I’m interested in picking up some of these.
Christie
All the books that have a “Find in my store” link underneath are available as new copies (or Kindle copies) from Amazon. For other books, the “Find on Biblio.com” or “Find on AbeBooks” links to send you to search results on those used-book sites. Using any of those links will earn me a small commission on books you purchase, helping cover the costs of assembling this list.
Indispensible Enemies by Walter Karp
Karp was Lewis Laphams right hand guy at Harpers.
Bill Moyers said he was one of the six greats whom
Molly Ivins would have joined by now.
Karp divides the world of politics into hacks and reformers
and shows the hacks of both parties colluding to keep
all reformers out of power. Karp also shows us the role
of dummy candidates and thrown elections.
Nothing in American politics makes sense before Karp
Everything in American politics makes sense
after you’ve read Karp.
Also Gothic Politics in the Deep South by Robert Sherrill.
Sherrill was an emeritus editor at the Nation and Ivins mentor
at Texas Monthly.
And George Seldes. And Molly Ivins.
Thank you all for your suggestions, which i will
print out and read.
How about Night of the Gun by David Carr?
Wonderful list. Thank you for sharing the wealth. I’m not a journalist (I used to teach English Lit and currently run workshops on Innovation) but I’m fanatical about journalism. I particularly loved William E. Blundell’s “The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on The Wall Street Journal Guide”. It’s a wee bit stodgy but it nails the vital importance of a clear underlying structure.