The American Newspaper Columnist

(Hardback)

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Description

The figure of the newspaper columnist, which emerged in America in the mid-nineteenth century, plays a key role in modern newspapers. Columnists nowadays add a decidedly personal touch to the newspapers in which they appearan important consideration in an increasingly impersonal, corporate, no-nonsense medium. This volume provides the most complete look available at the emergence of the columnist and at who the leading columnists have been from the Civil War era to the present. In total, 780 columnists and their work are examined chronologicallyaccording to when their columns first appearedwithin several categories: early (1800s), humor, column poets, syndicated political, other syndicated, local, and minority.

Reviews

In all, 780 columnists are chronologically cited, most with brief and sometimes penetrating analysis. Of great value are the end chapter notes which generously list works about or by the subjects. An excellent bibliography cites about 240 sources. This book will prove invaluable as a comprehensive survey of the genre, and it will be essential as a resource tool in graduate programs....This book is as close as we'll probably come to a single, comprehensive look at American columnists. Riley admits he was forced to sacrifice detail for scope, and many good columnists have been oerlooked. But the results clearly capture the diversity and depth of an essential form of journalism. A measure of the book's worth is that those syndicated or local columnists who were not included will wish they had been.-Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
Riley writes well and keeps the story moving, making clear both the similarities and differences among the many practitioners of the trade.-CBQ
This volume provides the most complete look available at the emergence of the columnist and at who the leading columnists have been from the Civil War era to the present.-New Books in the Communications Library
"Riley writes well and keeps the story moving, making clear both the similarities and differences among the many practitioners of the trade."-CBQ
"This volume provides the most complete look available at the emergence of the columnist and at who the leading columnists have been from the Civil War era to the present."-New Books in the Communications Library
"In all, 780 columnists are chronologically cited, most with brief and sometimes penetrating analysis. Of great value are the end chapter notes which generously list works about or by the subjects. An excellent bibliography cites about 240 sources. This book will prove invaluable as a comprehensive survey of the genre, and it will be essential as a resource tool in graduate programs....This book is as close as we'll probably come to a single, comprehensive look at American columnists. Riley admits he was forced to sacrifice detail for scope, and many good columnists have been oerlooked. But the results clearly capture the diversity and depth of an essential form of journalism. A measure of the book's worth is that those syndicated or local columnists who were not included will wish they had been."-Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

Author Bio

SAM G. RILEY is Professor of Communication Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He teaches mainly newspaper and magazine writing, communication history, and communication law and ethics. He has written or edited 14 books, including Magazines of the American South (Greenwood, 1986), The Best of the Rest: Non-Syndicated Newspaper Columnists Select Their Best Work (Greenwood, 1993), and Biographical Dictionary of American Newspaper Columnists (Greenwood, 1995).