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The non-fiction novel is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real historical figures
and actual events narrated woven together with fictitious allegations and using the storytelling
techniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherwise loosely-defined and flexible genre. The
genre is sometimes referred to as or faction, a portmanteau of "fact" and "fiction".
Contents [hide]
1 Genre established
1.1 Capote's In Cold Blood
1.2 20th century examples
1.3 Reduced usage

Print/export

2 Controversies
2.1 I Married Wyatt Earp

Languages

3 References

Dansk

4 External links

Deutsch

5 See also

Deutsch
Espaol

Genre established

[edit]

Esperanto
Franais
Franais

Norsk (bokml)
Suomi
Svenska
Trke

Geoffrey of Monmouth was a successful faction writer in the 12th century, and later the historian
Holinshed was led into error by treating Geoffrey of Monmouth's writings as truth.
In modern literature, it is commonly thought [who?] that this genre was formally established with the
1965 publication of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. That the genre was widely recognized in 1965 is
undeniable, but influences on the genre can be traced much earlier.
Works of history or biography have often used the narrative devices of fiction to depict real-world
events. Scholars have suggested that Operacin Masacre (1957) by Argentine author and journalist
Rodolfo Walsh was the first non-fiction novel.[1][2]

Capote's In Cold Blood

[edit]

Truman Capote was one of the first authors who was recognized for faction writing. Capote read the
story of the Clutter murders in a newspaper and was immediately hooked. He used the events
surrounding the crime as a basis for In Cold Blood. He spent years tracking the story and spent
considerable time with the people involved. He watched hours of film footage, listened to recordings,
and read transcripts and notes. He once claimed[citation needed] that everything within the book would
be true, word for word. Although this is impossible, the majority of information is accurate and
extremely detailed. Capote was able to interview the murderers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith.
This meant that he was able to establish their characters, making the details within the book
extremely accurate. The way in which the book is written objectively means that Capote has little
influence into the text, the influence that he does have is that of emotional manipulation.

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Non-fiction novel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Capote argued that the non-fiction novel should be devoid of first-person narration and, ideally, free
of any mention of the novelist. After the publication of In Cold Blood, many authors tested the form's
"original" concept; notably including Hunter S. Thompson (1966's Hell's Angels), Norman Mailer
(1968's Armies of the Night) and Tom Wolfe (1968's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test).

20th century examples

[edit]

This section does not cite any references or sources.

Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable
sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
(June 2011)

Another example of faction is the book According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge. This book
describes the last few years of Samuel Johnson's life as seen through the eyes of Queeney Thrale,
eldest daughter of Henry Thrale and Hester Thrale.
In Tom Wolfe's school of New Journalism (often characterized as an invention of the mid-sixties), the
novel is hybridized with journalistic narration, which, like Capote's prose, places little emphasis on the
process of narration (though Wolfe, unlike Capote, occasionally narrates from first-person).
Thompson's approach of "Gonzo Journalism" abandoned Capote's narrative style to intermingle
personal experiences and observations with more traditional journalism.
Other examples include the story of author Alex Haley and his entire family history for 9 generations
in the book Roots: The Saga of an American Family, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by
John Berendt, and The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer.
In the 1970s, authors began to re-publish essays or articles by uniting episodic works into a more
cohesive whole, such as Michael Herr's non-fiction novel, Dispatches, which reflected on the
journalist's reporting from Vietnam.

Reduced usage

[edit]

Since the '70s, the non-fiction novel has somewhat fallen out of favor. However, forms such as the
extended essay, the memoir, and the biography (and autobiography) can explore similar territory:
Joan Didion, for instance, has never called her own work a "non-fiction novel," while she has been
repeatedly credited for doing so with what she generally calls "extended" or "long" essays.
Later works classified as non-fiction novels include The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey: A
Nonfiction Novel by Bland Simpson, published in 1993, which tells the dramatic story of the
disappearance of nineteen-year-old Nell Cropsey from her riverside home in Elizabeth City, North
Carolina, in November 1901. A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr, published in 1996, described the
drama caused by a real-life water contamination scandal in Massachusetts in the 1980s. And In the
Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, fictionalized the lives of the Mirabal sisters who gave their
lives fighting a dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, based on their accounts.
Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning Armies of the Night is perhaps the most critically appreciated
non-fiction novel, a narrative which is split into a history and a novel, and which autobiographically
recounts the March on the Pentagon in 1967 from the third person.

Controversies

[edit]

In her novel The Secret River, Australian author Kate Grenville was accused by historians Mark
McKenna and Inga Clendinnen of distorting history.[3]

I Married Wyatt Earp

[edit]

After her husband Wyatt Earp's death, Josephine Earp sought to get her own life story published.
When she refused to be more forthcoming about details of her life in Tombstone, her collaborators
gave up and Josephine asked them to burn all the copies. Wyatt's cousins Mabel Earp Carson held
back a copy, which amateur historian Glen Boyer eventually acquired the rights to. [4]
The University of Arizona Press published it in 1967 as a memoir I Married Wyatt Earp giving
Josephine Earp credit as the author. In the book's epilogue, Boyer said he integrated two sources,
Josephine's and a second, the so-called "Clum manuscript", which he said had been written by The

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Non-fiction novel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tombstone Epitaph publisher John Clum based on conversations with Josephine.[4]

In the 1980s, critics began to question his sources and methods. When Boyer could not prove the
existence of the Clum manuscript, he equivocated, saying that he did not receive the Clum
manuscript from Colyn after all, instead it was given to him by one of Earp's nieces. Then he
changed his story further, saying, "the Clum manuscript is a generic term," Boyer told Wildcat
student-reporter Ryan Gabrielson. "This-in addition (to other source materials)-was supported by
literally hundreds, maybe thousands of letters and documents."[5]
When confronted with allegations that his book was a hoax, Boyer said he had been misunderstood.
"My work is beginning to be recognized by all but a few fanatics and their puppets as a classic
example of the newly recognized genre 'creative non-fiction.'"[6] In March 2000 the University of
Arizona Press removed the book from their catalog. [7]

References

[edit]

1. ^ Waisbord, Silvio (2000). Watchdog Journalism in South America: News, Accountability, and
Democracy . New York: Columbia University Press. p.282 pages. ISBN0231119755.
2. ^ Link, Daniel (2007). "Rethinking past present"
. Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas
(Routledge) 40 (75(2)): 218230. doi:10.1080/08905760701627711 .
3. ^ Sullivan, Jane (21 October 2006). "Making a fiction of history"

. The Age (Melbourne).

4. ^ a b Ortega, Tony (December 24, 1998). "How the West Was Spun" . Retrieved 29 May 2011.
5. ^ "History Expose the Facade Behind the Front" . Tombstone Tumbleweed. March 16, 2000.
6. ^ Decker, Jefferson (July/August 1999). "Tombstone Blues"
Retrieved 7 June 2011.

. Inside Publishing. Lingua Franca.

7. ^ Brien, DL (2006). Tess Brady and Nigel Krauth. ed. The Power of Truth: Literary Scandals and
Creative Nonfiction. Brisbane: Post-Pressed.

External links
1966 interview of Capote

[edit]
by George Plimpton

See also

[edit]

Non-fiction
Creative nonfiction
Docufiction
Historical Fiction
List of genres
Categories: Non-fiction novels

Literary genres

This page was last modified on 22 January 2012 at 09:46.

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