Does it matter if Joseph Mitchell embellished his journalism?

He is long known to have used composite characters and a new biography will reveal more embellishments – but perhaps that’s the magic of his workOver the weekend, the feathers of American literary journalists ruffled lightly in the breeze of a review that appeared in the New York Review of Books. The review, written by longtime New Yorker staff writer Janet Malcolm, was of an upcoming biography of another New Yorker staff writer, Joseph Mitchell, due to be published in the United States on 28 April. Malcolm’s review can be read as a pre-emptive defence of Mitchell’s legacy as one of the giants of American literary journalism. The biographer in question, Thomas Kunkel, has apparently found more evidence of what was already somewhat known: that Mitchell embellished his nonfiction, often condensing characters and facts to smooth out his stories. In one already well-known example, a long piece called Old Mr Flood condenses several men’s stories into the titular Mr Flood. Mitchell admitted this openly in a preface to the book later published under that name.He has mixed up nonfiction with fiction. He has made an unwholesome, almost toxic brew out of the two genres. It is too bad he is dead and can’t be pilloried. Or perhaps it is all right that he is dead, because he is suffering the torments of hell for his sins against the spirit of fact. And so on.Every writer of nonfiction who has struggled with the ditch and the bushes knows what Mitchell is talking about, but few of us... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-08 09:53:57 UTC ]
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Michael Joseph sends Jojo Moyes book to every library

Michael Joseph is supplying a free copy of Jojo Moyes’ new novel to every library that wants one to mark the start of Libraries Week. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-08 08:37:15 UTC ]
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Viking to publish companion journal to Obama's Becoming

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-06 15:05:01 UTC ]
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Audible snaps up rights to comedian Mitchell's new book

Audible has snapped up rights to the new book from comedian David Mitchell, narrated by the “Peep Show” star himself. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-06 03:52:04 UTC ]
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Mitchell novel and Fleabag extract revealed at Sceptre Salon

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-02 10:01:54 UTC ]
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Vicky Photiou joins Michael Joseph as marketing director

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-30 12:36:32 UTC ]
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We’ll Be Talking ‘Impeachment’ Again in a Year, No Matter What Happens With Trump

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[ AdWeek | 2019-09-27 10:30:50 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-27 01:46:12 UTC ]
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[ Literrary Hub | 2019-09-26 12:40:53 UTC ]
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David Mitchell announces Utopia Avenue, his first novel in five years

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[ The Guardian | 2019-09-26 10:42:58 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-26 03:23:29 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-23 17:42:22 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-23 03:47:12 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-17 17:37:40 UTC ]
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Michael Joseph’s Louise Jones returns to Ebury

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-13 10:29:04 UTC ]
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Michael Joseph to publish new Marian Keyes novel in 2020

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-11 07:16:00 UTC ]
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[ New Yorker | 2019-09-07 09:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Electric Literature | 2019-09-06 11:00:49 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-06 09:29:26 UTC ]
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Mitchell Beazley bags second Dirty Vegan tie-in cookbook

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-03 10:59:43 UTC ]
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