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Poison Penmanship: The Gentle Art of Muckraking

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I was sorry to see that this has gone out of print. The late Jessica Mitford, author of the American Way of Death, was a fine investigative journalist and just plain good writer. In Poison Penmanship she gleefully shares her adventures in the trade. She was fearless and zestful; obviously enjoyed the ruckus she kicked up, whether taking on the "death industry," the penal system, or a restaurant review. She is missed; so is this book.

I've been reading, with great relish, Jessica Mitford's Poison Penmanship: The Gentle Art of Muckraking. It's an excellent book, and it's a bloody shame it's out of print. Although the articles date from the 50s-70s, the writing is fresh, fresh, fresh! The book is set out as a collection of investigative articles followed by note sections describing the writing and research process. The subject matter varies from exposés on the funeral industry and the difficult birth of desegregation in the American south to life in an exclusive Arizona spa retreat and the censorship process on public service announcements on syphilis. Each of the stories is written with a delicious sense of humour.

From "You-All and Non-You-All: A Southern Potpourri" comes this:

"Once you start out with the integrationists, they are likely to pass you from hand to hand and from town to twon without giving you much chance to peer at the other side. I mentioned this to a young attorney, originally from Jackson, whom I met in Nashville. He laughed and said, "You should tra meetin' Kissin' Jim Folsom. That'd open yo' ass." For a moment, I was frozen with astonishment--until I realized he was saying "eyes.""

And...

"The reaction of my Montgomery hostesses to the piece, as reported by Virginia Durr, was illuminating. She said they were not in the least disturbed by my remarks about their mindless bigotry--but were exceedingly offened by my description of the FOOD as being uniformly bland and creamy: "We didn't have cream sauce, we had roast lamb the night she came." "She never mentioned my lettuce-and-walnut salad.""

If you can find yourself a copy at the library or second-hand shop, count yourself lucky. It's brilliant.

Jessica was once the most famous Mitford on this side of the Atlantic -- her The American Way of Death being of more interest locally than her older sister Nancy's almost autobiographical novels of the backbiting British aristocracy in love -- but her position may be slipping. And any of the Mitford sisters are always in danger of being subsumed into the myth of the Mitfords, that legendary six-headed female aristocrat that was simultaneously fascist and communist, married to all of the crowned heads of the world after being the most famous debutante ever, and speaking in private tongues to itself.

Poison Penmanship is a collection of Jessica Mitford's shorter journalism, most of it -- as the subtitle, "The Gentle Art of Muckraking," makes clear -- in the declamatory, j'accuse style of the '60s and '70s. It's been out of print since the original trade paperback edition of 1980, though, coincidentally, NYRB Press has a reprint planned for the middle of next year. (So this may perhaps be the time for a Jessica Mitford revival.)

Mitford structured Poison Penmanship as a primer in muckraking -- journalism that goes after a practice or industry hated by the writer, taking a strong position but also doing solid research to aid in the attack -- with a long introduction on the principles of her work and afterwords for each article bringing them up to date (to 1979) and providing background. She doesn't seem to have noticed that the articles collected here show her moving from advocacy and muckraking (tackling large issues like prison reform, racism in the South, newspaper prejudice and the funeral industry) towards more general journalism -- particularly since she closes with the long piece "Egyptomania," from the German travel magazine Geo, in which she investigates the then-current digs in the Valley of Kings without any particular point of view. So an unfriendly reader -- someone inclined to muckrake Mitford, perhaps -- could use this book as evidence that success ruined Mitford, turning her to puffier pieces like "Egyptomania" and a similar investigatory journalism piece on a super-expensive Elizabeth Arden desert beauty clinic.

In 1979, muckraking was still exclusively the province of the Left; the very idea of similar work being done by the Right would be ludicrous. But the world has changed since then, in part because of Mitford and her fellow muckrakers, and now muckraking is not only bipartisan, but universal. (What are Perez Hilton and Gawker if not muckrakers of the most frivolous sort?) The Internet sometimes seem to exist purely for the raking of muck, and subsequent lobbing of said muck at one's targets. We are all in the world Jessica Mitford built, but we have found that it's no longer "we" who attack "them" -- the war is now general, a Hobbesian war of all against all.

And so Poison Penmanship might be more useful now than ever before. Its specific examples might be old and out-of-date -- though the causes are still strong, often complaining about exactly the same abuses as Mitford did forty years ago -- but the lessons in advocacy journalism, in research and in getting the story solid before a reporter confronts a major hostile witness, are still as strong as ever before. And looking at the poor quality of muckraking currently -- since most of it could more honestly be called mud-flinging, with no serious attempt at research, analysis, or coherent thought behind it -- shows that Poison Penmanship is sorely needed now. Kudos to NYRB Books for bringing it back, and we should all hope for a rise in the general quality of muck raked about a year from now.

Poison Penmanship, The Gentle Art of Muckraking

It's a pity this book hasn't been reprinted since Mitford's death in 1996. It's as timely as ever in this age of Milquetoast journalism and blind acceptance of the status quo.

Penmanship is a collection of journal articles spanning Mitford's career which began, of course, with the groundbreaking and morbidly droll book "The American Way of Death" in 1963. My favorites are the infamous expose of The Famous Writers School, worth the price of the book alone, her bemusing and amusing stay at an Elizabeth Arden spa, and a little spat with a posh NYC restaurant which was obviously unaware of who they were trying to screw over.

I just bought hardcover prints of PP (and immediately found my original paperback... but having 2 is no problem) and Hons and Rebels, an amusing and fascinating memoir of her early life. My copy of AWOD is the one acquired in high school in the early 1970s, a little worn but intact.

This book should be reprinted!

This is a compilation of a wide range of Mitford's articles, the best of which, such as her skewering of the "Famous Writers' School", are timeless classics. This is a superb collection, and a complete delight to read.

I found this book after a recommendation email sent to me by Amazon. I have been studying journalism over my life and found this to be an excellent read. I feel it is a must have for any journalist just for the introduction where the author sets out her rules for her work.
When I get through my current reading list, I will be looking at Amazon to aquire more of her books.