New New Journalism: Conversations with America's Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft »

Robert S. Boynton directs New York University’s graduate magazine journalism program. He has been a senior editor at Harper's and a contributing writer for The New Yorker. His work appears in The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Rolling Stone and many other publications.

Forty years after Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, and Gay Talese launched the New Journalism movement, Robert S. Boynton sits down with nineteen practitioners of what he calls the New New Journalism to discuss their methods, writings and careers.

The New New Journalists are first and foremost brilliant reporters who immerse themselves completely in their subjects. Jon Krakauer accompanies a mountaineering expedition to Everest. Ted Conover works for nearly a year as a prison guard. Susan Orlean follows orchid fanciers to reveal an obsessive subculture few knew existed. Adrian Nicole LeBlanc spends nearly a decade reporting on a family in the South Bronx. And like their muckraking early twentieth-century precursors, they are drawn to the most pressing issues of the day: Alex Kotlowitz, Leon Dash, and William Finnegan to race and class; Ron Rosenbaum to the problem of evil; Michael Lewis to boom-and-bust economies; Richard Ben Cramer to the nitty gritty of politics. How do they do it? In these interviews, they reveal the techniques and inspirations behind their acclaimed works, from their felt-tip pens, tape recorders, long car rides, and assumed identities; to their intimate understanding of the way a truly great story unfolds.

Interviews with:
Gay Talese Jane Kramer*
Calvin Trillin Richard Ben Cramer*
Ted Conover*
Alex Kotlowitz*
Richard Preston*
William Langewiesche*
Eric Schlosser Leon Dash William Finnegan Jonathan Harr*
Jon Krakauer*
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc Michael Lewis*
Susan Orlean Ron Rosenbaum Lawrence Weschler*
Lawrence Wright*

* Search our online catalog to find other titles by these Vintage and Anchor Books authors.

The New York Times - Jack Shafer

The New New category turns out to be not much more than a loose net to trap a bunch of writers Boynton happens to admire. Still, these interviews deepen our understanding of ''literary journalism,'' a more inclusive tag than either New or New New Journalism. Did New Journalism knock the novel off its pedestal, as Wolfe promised? Not really. Perhaps Wolfe interpreted the journalistic experiments of novelists like Mailer, Capote, Terry Southern and Joan Didion as defections presaging a revolution. Although many New journalists continue to be read, they haven't exactly displaced Bellow and Roth. Even Wolfe seemed to concede defeat when he abandoned the form to write novels of his own.