Customer Reviews

The Mammoth Book of Journalism: 101 Masterpieces from the Finest Writers and Reporters, Including Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Martha Gell (Mammoth Books)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book has an incredible cast of writers: Hemingway, Dickens, Orwell, Churchill etc. However, if you are not a big fan of war reportage, you may want to look elsewhere. The majority of these articles are war related and although they are very well written, war is not a topic I find very interesting. Still, there a number of fascinating pieces of journalism, like the one about the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, and Dickens piece on a guillotine execution in a town square. It's worth a read but I would have liked to see more of a variety in topics.

This hefty paperback tome is an excellent addition to any library for the wealth of Anglo-American classics contained within. Here we get the great modern war stories along with cultural classics like the infamous article where John Lennon is quoted as saying the Beatles are more famous than Jesus. Many journalism collections are just dreary and dusty old collections, but the selection here is mostly enjoyable and sometimes truly great. I'd recommend this book to fellow journalists and to history buffs alike. The main trouble with the collection is its narrow casting - it is Anglo-American to the core. For this collection to be truly great - and truly a compendium of journalism - it'd need some great African voices like the column South African activist Steve Biko wrote under the byline "Frank Talk" that broke that county's censorship rules to tell the truth about apartheid. There must be other examples from around the world, but this collection is mostly an Atlantic cup of tea.

But a remarkably flavorful cup of tea at that.

It's a brilliant copy, I have been looking for this book for more than a year. And I am grateful that I could find it on Amazon.com.