By Howard Good
The Journalist in Fiction, 1890-1930
Fictional characters ofthe momentum is acquired and their other col- period reveal trends in views lateral effects are fully predetermined."^ In the last quarter ofthe 19th century, Amer- of journalists. ican journalism acquired the necessary momentum. Between 1870 and 1890 the »• Toward the end of the nineteenth total circulation of daily newspapers in the century a new class of ftction began to United States rose 222%.' As a conse- emerge in the United States. Its central quence of this spectacular growth, the character was, for better or worse, the journalist began to think of his as a new journalist. and important calling and of himself, in The genre was given an initial push by the words of New York World reporter the popularity of Richard Harding Davis' Ned Brown, as "a citizen of no mean "Gallegher, a Newspaper Story," the tale state."* of a plucky copy boy who assists in the capture of a notorious killer at a world Method champion boxing match and then helps This study, based on a reading of 75 or his paper scoop the town with the news. so novels and short stories published in Originally published in Scribner's Maga- the United States between 1890 and 1930, zine in August 1890, "Gallegher" later sold examines the basic motifs of newspaper more than 50,000 copies when published fiction. Curiously, the fiction often runs in book form. counter to what might be called the offi- With "Gallegher,'* the 26-year-old Davis cial history ofjournalism. The years 1890 became the beau ideal of young reporters to 1930 witnessed the continued profes- drudging on routine assignments and cher- sionalization of the journalist. It was an ishing literary ambitions. More impor- era when press clubs sprang up, when tantly, its success demonstrated that fic- trade journals and journalism textbooks tion with a newspaper setting had popular appeared, and when the movement for col- appeal and fulfilled a public need. As lege instruction in journalism got seriously Edwin L. Shuman wrote in the "Preface" under way. to his handbook. Practical Journalism As early as 1900 the Journalist was (1903), "There are few things concerning smugly asserting that journalism had out- which the general public is more curious, grown its irresponsible adolescence, its and about which it knows less, than the bohemian beginnings. "It was not very inside of a metropolitan newspaper of- many years ago," the magazine said, "that fice."' Horace Greeley made a remark to the The emergence of newspaper fiction fol- effect that he would rather have a wild bull lowed the emergence of the journalist as a in his office than a college graduate. To- distinct type. "Social changes," George Edwin L. Shuman. Praiitcal Journalism {New York. Santayana once observed, "do not reach Applelon. 190}). p. vil. artistic expression until after their = George SanMyana. -Jusnricalion of An.- tjitje Essays (New Yor..: Scribner's. 1920). p. 112. 1 Frank Lulher Mott. Amertcan Journalism. 3d ed. (New York: Macmillan. 1962). p. S07. » Dr. Good is assistant professor of communication * Quoted in Allen Churchill. Park AoK'(New York: Rinehart. arts at lona College. New Rochelle. New York. I9S8). p. 224.
352 The Journalist in Fiction. 1890-1930 353 day college-bred men are the rule well Joseph A. Altsheler wrote in his 1904 dressed, well mannered alert young news novel, Gutherie of the Times "There are gatherers have taken the piace of the two kinds of correspondents; those who impudent, unshorn, rum-soaked old vaga- collect news and those who absorb it. bonds who used to disgrace the profes- Gutherie fell within the latter class, which sion."' But newspaper fiction frequently is by far the abler of the two, and knows contradicts such pronouncements, or at instinctively what things are worth."* least plays down their significance. But, by and large, the authors of news- Written primarily by newspapermen paper fiction agreed with Joseph Pulitzer's and former newspapermen, the fiction statement in his famous essay, "The Col- embodies the unofficial but deep-seated lege of Journalism." that "the only posi- attitudes of journalists toward their work. tion that occurs to me which a man in our The novels and short stories are true in the Republic can successfully fill by the simple way that the dreams of a night are true fact of birth is that of an idiot."^ Special beneath the distortions and disguises of preparation was necessary for journalism. the unconscious. Fiction gave the authors As Jesse Lynch Williams, a former New the freedom and form necessary to express York Sun reporter, said in his Stoten the anxieties they felt while working on Story and Other Newspaper Stories (1899): newspapers for a living. "Not even William Shakespeare would Once one peels back the literary conven- know what to get or how to put it without tions of the period, a period when senti- some training at reporting."* mentality was grudgingly giving way to a The most common plot in newspaper new realism in American literature, and fiction, then, has a young man enter jour- exposes the core of newspaper fiction, one nalism fresh from college and full of ideal- finds the authors preoccupied with the istic fervor and literary ambition. He problem of what was the best preparation immediately suffers a series of setbacks in for a career in journalism. Also of a deep his work. But just when he is about to be concern to them was whether the journal- fired for incompetence, he scoops the ist was fundamentally a reformer or a opposition and starts on his way to cynic or a combination of both. As var- becoming a star reporter. All along, he has ious authors struggled with these ques- been learning from bitter experience what tions between 1890 and 1930, searching it is that makes a news story and a real their personal experience for answers, newspaperman. Later, he may undergo newspaper fiction grew increasingly skep- doubts about journalism, find it increas- tical of the claim that journalism had shed, ingly sordid and superficial. For the or ever could shed, its bohemianism and moment, though, he is simply glad to be become a true profession. no longer considered a cub. An early example of this plot is found in Education vs. Experience future muckraker Ray Stannard Baker's Occasionally one encounters in news- "Pippins," published in the September 7, paper fiction the notion that the best 1899, issue of Youth's Companion. "Pip- reporters are born, not made. For exam- pins" is what everyone in the city room of ple, former New York Wortd editor the Chicago Ledger calls James Northcote Lawrence, who is right out of college and ' "Our Seventeenth Special." " Journaltst. Dec 15. 1900. p 276. "beaming with confidence in himself."* • Joseph A. Altsheler. Gutherte of the Times (New York But the young reporter soon has his confi- Doubleday. Page. 1904). p. 54 dence shaken. ' Joseph Pulitzer. "The College of Journalism." North Amer- Writing about a fire one night. Pippins tcan Revteu. May 1904. p 642. • Jesse Lynch Williams. "The New Reporter." The Stolen is "keenly conscious of his college Latin Slori and Other Newspaper Sturtei (New York Scribner's. and French," and he sprinkles "a meta- 1899; reprint ed.. Freeport. N Y.. Books for Libraries Press. phor here and a simile there, to make the I9W). p 69 ' Ray Slannard Baker. "Pippins." Youth's Companton. Sep- story sparkle... ."The next morning he is tember 7. 1899. p. 435. surprised not to see his effort on the front 354 JOLJRNALI.SM QUARTERLY page, or on the second., .or the third. He ing newspaper work in some numbers in finally locates it in an obscure corner of the 1890s were ushering in a golden age of the paper, his Latin and French and liter- journalism. This impression results from ary flourishes "remorselessly cut out."'" (A the fact that they often despise the older, similar scene occurs in David Graham jaded generation of reporters. Phillips' 1901 novel. The Great God Suc- A typical reaction to the veterans is that cess, Howard, the Yale-educated protago- of the protagonist of Wayland Wells Wil- nist, writes a 2,000-word story, but only liams' 1920 novel, Goshen Street: "Not two lines of it get printed, and that in the only was he repelled by their unattractive smallest type ) appearance, their heavy bandinage, their Before he can succeed in newspaper noisy excursions to the bar; he noticed two work. Pippins must have the "college" or three of them were gray-haired men of knocked out of him. He must lose his false fifty and became afraid. What if/i^ should classroom notions of journalism and life. degenerate into that distressing product, Only then will he be ready to prove at one the elderly reporter, being sent out on less stroke that he has the makings of a and less important stories, trying to belie journalist. his failure by boasting of past triumphs?"" Pippins' big chance comes one blustery But such trepidation tends to be repu- December night when he is sent to dis- diated, or at least tempered, by the dynam- cover why the men at a waterworks intake ics of the plot. It rapidly develops in most crib on Lake Michigan have run up a dis- newspaper fiction that the secrets of the tress flag. After the captain of the tugboat craft, its lore and legends, are stored away that took him out refuses to return to the in the whiskey-addled brains of old news- city because of ice on the lake. Pippins papermen. "When you are done with me," walks ashore at risk of his life to bring in declares one who has taken the young the story. At one point, he falls through hero of Edward Hungerford's The Copy the ice, but "spurred by the thought of a Shop (1925) under his wing, "you can beat," saves himself from drowning." forget all that journalism stuff that they Though soaked and shivering. Pippins tried to teach you in that freshwater col- hurries straight to the office to write his lege of yours. I am going to show you the account. He forgets in his excitement "all real thing."'* his Latin and French" and tells "the story as it happened in crisp, short sentences " In essence, the college-educated cub is Pippins scoops even "the great Keenan" of faced with the unenviable choice of failing the rival Times, "who had been through or of defecting to the ranks of hacks and half a dozen Indian wars and had brought alcoholic wrecks, of continuing to bumble back a long jagged scar on one cheek as a along or of remaking himself in the bat- souvenir of one of them." The Ledger's tered image of the veteran journalists. But city editor observes, "You'll do. Pippins." not long after choosing to emulate the old It is "the great praise that ever comes to a pros, he begins to question whether suc- newspaper man."'^ cess in journalism is worth the cost—the Baker could not have more clearly death of innocence, the loss of idealism, expressed the belief that practical expe- the fading of literary ambition. He won- rience is the best teacher of a reporter, ders, in the words of a reporter in Samuel even a college-educated reporter, or per- Hopkins Adams' 1921 novel. Success, "if haps especially a college-educated one. In "Pippins," as in most newspaper fiction of the period, college education is more than " Ibid. merely useless; it is actually a hindrance to '> Ibid success in journalism. >' Ibid, pp 435-3*. On the surface, however, the fiction Waylatid Wells Williams. Ooshen Street (New York: Stokes. 1920). pp. 88-89 seems to suggest something quite differ- " Edward Hungerford. 7*e Copy Shop (New York: Put- ent: that the college men who began enter- nam's. 192)). p.36. The Journali.it in Fiction, 1890-1930 355 the newspaper game isn't just too strong motion, but doesn't land you anywbere. for us who try to play it."" There's nothing to it. I heard you talking the other day about the great equipment it The Great Escape gives a fellow for a start in life. That's all Disillusioned and fearful for his future, right if taken in time, like the measles, but the young reporter usually abandons let me tell you something. You stick at this, journalism. He may go into literature or and stick and stick, and by the time you're ready for that stan, you'll be backin' up." politics or business, but whichever path he takes, he escapes down it just as fast as he can. Journalism offers a smattering of all As the years wore on, the crusader of kinds of knowledge, and can serve as a newspaper fiction would evolve into a tho- steppingstone to something else. But those roughgoing cynic. Under the pressure of who stick to it are doomed. "There's no social changes, his instinctive distrust of future for a man In the newspaper busi- journalism would seep outward to darken ness," a veteran political reporter warns his attitude toward the whole of life. the cub in Ben Ames Williams' 1927 novel. Novels and short stories that feature the Splendor. "Nothing but a lot of work and crusading journalist follow a distinct pat- a sanitarium when your nerves play out. tern. The crusader often arrives in town a Late hours, long hours, dull scratching at stranger. Perhaps he has inherited a strug- things.""' The words echo and reecho in gling newspaper from a distant relative; the pages of newspaper fiction. "Leave the perhaps he has drifted onto the scene in game before you are forced out of it," the search of a job. In either case, he finds a protagonist of Malcolm H. Ross' Penny community controlled by gangsters of one Dreadful (1929) is told." "I don't want to stripe or another. Acting as an extra-legal burn out in this business," says the hero of force, he routs the evildoers. He is a mes- former newspaperman Gene Fowlers sianic figure who materializes out of Trumpet in the Dust (1930) "They use nowhere to break the midnight conspira- you until you are all consumed and then cies that rule the sunlit streets and to pro- they toss you aside like a handful of wet tect the innocent from the corrupt. ashes."'" The pattern usually ends in one of two Journalism may bea school of practical ways. Sometimes the crusader is rewarded experience or a cemetery of talent, these with the love of a beautiful woman, fame and other authors of newspaper fiction and prosperity for his paper, and promo- concluded, but it is not a career. tion out of daily journalism. He becomes a leader in the community that he helped From Crusader to Cynic reconstruct. His leadership may be for- Even the crusader, the most positive mally recognized by election to political literary representation of the journalist, office, as happens to John Harkless in does not regard journalism as a career. Booth Tarkington's The Gentleman From The hero of Olin L. Lyman's Micky Indiana (1899), to Billy Gutherie in Joseph (1905), a tramp newspaperman whose A. Altsheler's Gutherie of the Time.\ reporting smashes the political machine in (1904), and to Jeremy Robson in Samuel an unidentified Eastern city, warns a cub: Hopkins Adams' Common Cause (1919). Other times the crusader disappears as You'll find this "career." as you call it a mysteriously as he appeared. Such is the good deal like a hobby horse. Pleasant case in Lyman's novel, in Louis Dodge's "Samuel Hopkins Adams. Sur<«J(Boston. Houghton Mif- Whispers (1920), and in Edna Kerbers nin. 1921). p. S46. Cimarron (1930). The crusader establishes " Ben Atnes Williams. Splendor (Sev York: Dutton. 1927). p. 205 the basis for civilization in what had been " Malcolm H. Ross. Penny DreadfuHNfn York Coward- a moral wilderness, only to vanish once his McCann. 1929). p. 37. utility has worn out. " CCTC Fowler. Trumpet in the Dust (New York; Livcright. The crusading journalist emerged as a 1930). p. 294. "Olin L Lyman. Mi
First Amendment Danger from Within ^ I don't believe that,,, the American public is going to tolerate the repeal of the First Amendment or court rulings that would effectively silence, or even seriously restrain criticism of the government... I fear that the press itself, in its attitudes, assumptions and limitations, may as seriously as any outside force limit the public's right to know, and tar- nish the ideal of an informed populace. That right and that ideal, after all, not the comfort, convenience or status of reporters and editors, are the purposes of a free press with Constitutional protection. How well the press serves those purposes is the real test of its freedom, and that standard requires us to examine our own performance more candidly than we usually do.... So far from being the arrogant tramplers of national security and government secrets imagined by Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon before him, the press in which I've spent most of my life has usually appeared to me to be hungry for a respectable place in the established political and economic order, and apprehensive about the hostile public 'and official reaction that boldness and independence often evoke. ... So, if there's ample cause to be concerned about the First Amendment, and the courts and the national security zealots, the press has no reason for complacency about its own performance, in print or with television cameras. The First Amendment is not needed to protect staged "media events," unquestioning acceptance of official statements, ill-informed reports of complex matters, and evasions of responsi- bility—any more than it's needed to protect gourmet recipes and happy- talk weather reports. And even the First Amendment can't guarantee thoughtful and informed reporting of the news.—TOM WICKER in speech at the University of Arizona after receiving the John Peter Zenger Award, October 18, 1984.