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ight hand. I’m glad the daily paper is written in the third person because I don’t usually want to know about the writer in that context; I just want the information in the least obtrusive, most objective way possible. On the other hand, there are occasional news stories when the first person pronoun really is appropriate, and in those cases I’d much rather see an “I” than read a reference to “this reporter,” or “a visitor,” which feels stilted and false. Do you think about the sound your words make? A lot. When I’ve got a reasonably polished draft, I read chapters out loud to myself, or to my wife and friends. Bad writing usually reveals itself when it is verbalized. And particularly in first-person writing, I think—when you’re being dishonest in your own, personal voice, there is nothing like reading it out loud to reveal it. It is sometimes quite painful to hear. Do you believe that the kind of participant-observer journalism you practice leads to truth? I’m a pretty straightforward, nuts-and-bolts guy when it comes to journalism. Either something happened, or it didn’t. I have a contract with my readers according to which they can expect my material to be true, and I honor that. I believe in the literal truth of nonfiction, as opposed to the philosophical truth of fiction. I think re-created dialogue is one of the biggest, most persistent problems of “creative nonfiction.” Everything in my books is true, and yet dialogue is so difficult to record verbatim that it is a big gray area. And add to that gray area the fact that journalistic convention requires that dialogue be rendered intelligibly—edited, essentially— and the question of what “true” “creative nonfiction” really means gets even more difficult. Is it a metaphysical or lasting truth? I hope there is a profundity in what I write. I hope that people feel they have received something “lasting” from it. But is it capital T “Truth”? I’m not sure about that. Do you think long-form nonfiction is a peculiarly American form? A number of British writers do it very well. But it does seem the form is most vital here. This is probably due to a few factors. The multiplicity of outlets that publish the form. The multiplicity of voices here, people from different backgrounds and experiences who find writing as a way to express themselves. Another reason is that we are closer to the engine of the entertainment industry, which options some of our books, and thereby provides us with the financial means to continue writing. Who do you consider to be your colleagues and major influences? As for colleagues, Jon Krakauer, Sebastian Junger, Scott Anderson, Adrian LeBlanc, Mark Salzman, and Nicholas Dawidoff are a few contemporaries. Tracy Kidder has been a model and a colleague. George Orwell is probably at the top of the list of influences. Down and Out in Paris and London, Homage to Catalonia, and his novels— I’m an aspiring novelist as well. John Steinbeck and Jack London, who did a lot of advocacy journalism. Joan Didion. Tom Wolfe. Peter Matthiessen,
Bruce Chatwin, anything by J. M. Coetzee, the South African novelist. I guess I read more fiction than nonfiction. Why? Probably because fiction writers tend to be better storytellers. And they are usually more attentive to style and language than nonfiction writers are. Are you hopeful about the future of long-form nonfiction? The wave of New Journalism in the late sixties and early seventies, the old Esquire stuff, has had a great legacy, whether that legacy now takes the form of travel writing or memoirs. It manifests itself in new and unpredictable ways. For instance, I just read a memoir by Thomas DeBaggio, describing the progression of his Alzheimer’s. What an amazing idea! And long-form nonfiction seems to be thriving in the form of books and in magazines like The New Yorker. It is sad to see Rolling Stone thinning it out and running less ambitious, shorter pieces. It is sad to see that the men’s magazines want only short pieces. But I don’t think that those of us who write in this form are an endangered species. I don’t think there is any kind of intellectual malaise. Quite the contrary, I think it is growing in all sorts of interesting ways. BY TED CONOVER: Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, Random House, 2000 Whiteout: Lost in Aspen, Random House, 1991 Coyotes: A Journey Through the Secret World of America’s Illegal Aliens, Vintage Books, 1987 Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America’s Hoboes, Viking, 1984
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Title Page Dedica
Page 5 and 6: To Helen
Page 7 and 8: Acclaim for The New New Journalism
Page 9 and 10: Preface I had neither studied nor t
Page 11 and 12: perceived as bizarre tribes one stu
Page 13 and 14: work is the spirit with which he pr
Page 15 and 16: for a movement than an advertisemen
Page 17 and 18: and reporting (the latter developme
Page 19 and 20: Crane did before them—bridge the
Page 21 and 22: Journalists have revived the tradit
Page 23 and 24: Sims, Norman, and Mark Kramer, eds.
Page 25 and 26: infantrymen in the army of homeless
Page 27 and 28: a marginal or strange subculture—
Page 29 and 30: “Disdain” is too strong a word.
Page 31 and 32: of the academy that I’d be assign
Page 33 and 34: Well, not really. I was never comfo
Page 35 and 36: sacred to me. I know that if I were
Page 37 and 38: expand on brief notes, transcribe q
Page 39 and 40: experienced Denver as a member of a
Page 41: history or policy. Or than when I
Page 45 and 46: Freed from the constraints of newsp
Page 47 and 48: For his most recent book, How Israe
Page 49 and 50: Now I’ve known a lot of politicia
Page 51 and 52: gathering information. So the first
Page 53 and 54: I learned it in Baltimore when I wa
Page 55 and 56: How did they respond? They were won
Page 57 and 58: write anything down, but the conver
Page 59 and 60: What kind of a presence do you like
Page 61 and 62: earned him the moniker of “staff
Page 63 and 64: I want to understand the lives of p
Page 65 and 66: You haven’t done any celebrity jo
Page 67 and 68: I never know. I do know that I don
Page 69 and 70: When Children Want Children, I rent
Page 71 and 72: I like doing interviews over meals
Page 73 and 74: Do you believe journalism can lead
Page 75 and 76: Supporting himself through odd jobs
Page 77 and 78: the editor’s house, but it had a
Page 79 and 80: their activities, takes precedence,
Page 81 and 82: public policy, etc., play in your w
Page 83 and 84: How do you get people to ignore you
Page 85 and 86: American landscape to someone who h
Page 87 and 88: tried to kill him, and a drive-by s
Page 89 and 90: Has taking notes openly ever been a
Page 91 and 92: anymore. I trust my editors more th
Page 93 and 94:
Do you see yourself as part of an h
Page 95 and 96:
JONATHAN HARR In February 1986, Jon
Page 97 and 98:
to have his application rejected. T
Page 99 and 100:
Mostly I prefer to choose my own id
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young lawyers, so he was a natural
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is writing: creating something on t
Page 105 and 106:
of the typed notes and put them int
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typewriter, it is between you and t
Page 109 and 110:
There is only one person who reads
Page 111 and 112:
Do you believe your brand of journa
Page 113 and 114:
narrative articles on topics that h
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Unprotected,” February 8, 1999].
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Public figures. Often when I write
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had been fired from the force after
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How much will you challenge someone
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easy for them to condemn him, and t
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“Off the record” is such an amb
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enormous amount of time on it. If y
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to remind yourself constantly that
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JON KRAKAUER Jon Krakauer’s pride
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party to the death of good people,
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identified a decent-size town just
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e stubborn and determined and, abov
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season lasts six hours and yet can
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journalism fellows who attacked me
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contentious, with everybody jabberi
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important passages. When I was on M
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I got back from Everest in May 1996
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contradictory. Although I may have
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JANE KRAMER Jane Kramer writes abou
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Kramer’s questions—Who has the
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Unsettling Europe. I think I must h
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How do you decide whom to interview
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How do you begin an interview? If i
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There are exceptions to this, of co
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I can pretend a stranger has writte
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I think it comes out of the English
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Europeans, Farrar, Straus and Girou
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Wolfgang Langewiesche, was a pilot
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society, and our own bewilderment a
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of the “normal accident,” in th
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going, and it gets really interesti
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What kind of a notebook do you use?
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from it freely. How do you start wr
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V. S. Naipaul is another writer who
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ADRIAN NICOLE LEBLANC There were ni
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guaranteed that the book would be w
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used to say. Also, the reader tends
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Sadly, variations on a theme. It’
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How much do you share about your pr
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Do you tape your interviews? Yes, b
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Do you write chronologically? Usual
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would have liked to include. Someti
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ought him into mild conflict with h
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were the ones who provided a truly
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economics of the game kept poor tea
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eporting. It presumes that the actu
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“Come with me while I scout baseb
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For example, I wrote all my New Rep
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the way I used to write. I liked to
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interested. It is a level of confid
Page 215 and 216:
SUSAN ORLEAN New Yorker writer Susa
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Orlean and her husband, John Gilles
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What is your filtering process? As
Page 221 and 222:
whether because of access or other
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Why frustrating? Well, when I hire
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little threads of who they are and
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I make clear I didn’t observe. I
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icher version of experience than me
Page 231 and 232:
RICHARD PRESTON Richard Preston may
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The virologist told Preston of an o
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which I probably pursue five storie
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all agents from talking to me on th
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Level 4, but they won’t come out.
Page 241 and 242:
I tell the story of how I found the
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techniques. When you’re interview
Page 245 and 246:
and emotional environment all aroun
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I have to sort through it with the
Page 249 and 250:
Any particular time of day you writ
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literary nonfiction is no different
Page 253 and 254:
RON ROSENBAUM As a child growing up
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een eliminated? He began a historic
Page 257 and 258:
When I talked about Doyle with Esqu
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No, I bring them along so that I ca
Page 261 and 262:
What changed? I finally found a met
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Does exercise help? I used to get a
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fiction. I learn so much when I pic
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in California [“In the Strawberry
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heard Pete Wilson, who was governor
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What kinds of people do you most an
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pretty straightforward: I say who I
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Well, the drug dealers I interviewe
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editors would. I care about every s
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GAY TALESE Tom Wolfe once dubbed Ga
Page 281 and 282:
Some critics accused Talese of bein
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great story. How do you decide a
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Okay, that might get you a whole af
Page 287 and 288:
Where do you most like interviewing
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say, “I can’t do any better. Ga
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Honor Thy Father, World, 1971 Fame
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chief, judged that it came “close
Page 295 and 296:
Raymond Chandler or Ross MacDonald,
Page 297 and 298:
Are you always aware when you’re
Page 299 and 300:
Time bureau in Atlanta in the early
Page 301 and 302:
Do you negotiate ground rules in or
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I don’t argue about the rights an
Page 305 and 306:
Yes. Before computers, I wrote by p
Page 307 and 308:
Some have described your tone as un
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American Stories, Ticknor and Field
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Weschler attended Cowell College of
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aspire to be a part—which ought i
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me to them initially. This must mak
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I tend to pursue my own projects an
Page 319 and 320:
When I do foreign reporting I make
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econcile the two?” Because of the
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of Death and the Maiden, which happ
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quoted my thoughts on that topic as
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The most important thing is to not
Page 329 and 330:
Is there any particular place you n
Page 331 and 332:
Do you detect any hopeful signs? Th
Page 333 and 334:
attracted the attention of William
Page 335 and 336:
going, that is the angle I tend to
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dramatic terms: the wickedest man i
Page 339 and 340:
speak on your behalf is key in the
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interview to be entirely “on the
Page 343 and 344:
America, 1960-1984]. It is, essenti
Page 345 and 346:
I have a very dear friend in Texas
Page 347 and 348:
Truth is one of those subjective te
Page 349 and 350:
1 Tom Wolfe, The New Journalism (Ne
Page 351 and 352:
26 Preston, “The Fabric of Fact,
Page 353 and 354:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Robert S. Boynton
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