A wide range of writers are brought together for the first time in this discussion of an on-going, largely unrecognized American prose tradition: literary journalism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Such writing was not new journalism and therefore simply a type of journalism; nor was it factual fiction, merely a type of realistic fiction. Rather, it can be examined as a distinct literary form, a type of cultural expression that can be defined and characterized.

Thirty-five lively and literate essays by contributing scholars analyze major writers of this literary genre or writers known for a major work in the genre, and Thomas B. Connery provides short pieces for nineteen additional figures. The volume introduction discusses definitions and characteristics of literary journalism, with reference to the patterns of reality depicted, and identifies two main types: works characterized by immersion and shorter, more impressionistic pieces. The roots of this new journalism are traced, and ideas of the theorists of this genre are explicated. Connery also provides the results of his research and uncovers the primary sources of literary journalism.