A Favor for the Ages

Authors

  • Wayne Worcester University of Connecticut Author

Keywords:

literary journalism, New Journalism, Oswald's Tale, truth and nonfiction, American journalism, twentieth-century American literature

Abstract

An examination of Norman Mailer as representative of the best of American journalism, one of the boldest, brightest, most tenacious, and passionate of its practitioners, as illustrated by the power of Oswald’s Tale. At one turn, Mailer could be the once-and-future journalist, erudite, hard-working to a fault, dazzling with invention, but restrained by the metes and bounds of reality. The next, he could be the celebrated novelist, startlingly fresh, daring and powerful. He could reach for truth with either hand. Genre mattered little; convention not at all. His bravado and originality made his work magnetic and, inevitably, controversial.

Author Biography

  • Wayne Worcester, University of Connecticut

    Wayne Worcester is Professor of Journalism at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, where he teaches news writing and literary journalism. He is a former reporter and editor at the Providence Journal, a freelance writer, and essayist. He is co-author of a reference work published by HarperCollins as well as two Sherlock Holmes novels and a short story, all published by Signet/New American Library.

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Published

2026-03-14

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2009): Beyond Fiction

Section

Articles