Issue 04 / 1995
4 / Creative Nonfiction Classics
Fundamental pieces of the genre
This issue addresses readers who are uncertain about the exact scope and focus of the genre—those who believe that nonfiction cannot maintain its integrity without traditional standards of journalistic integrity, as well as those who believe that “creative” is just another word for unusual prose and narrative experimentation.
Readers are introduced to fundamental pieces in the creative nonfiction canon including work by Gay Talese, John McPhee, Louis Simpson, Elizabeth Hodges, and others. Taken with Gutkind’s introduction, these essays showcase fact in a creative context, highlighting and defining the boundaries of the genre.
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FROM THE EDITOR: The Creative Nonfiction Approach
“Now that you have established this journal called Creative Nonfiction,” people ask, “here’s something I’d like to know: What does it mean?” It’s surprising to learn how many writers (and readers) don’t understand, exactly, the elements of the form in which they are writing.The Conching Rooms
Pools and pools and pools of chocolate— 50,000-pound, 90,000-pound, Olympic-length pools of chocolate— in the conching rooms in the chocolate factory in Hershey, Pa. Big, aromatic rooms. Chocolate, as far as the eye can see.July
In June Eliza’s dancing school staged a ballet version of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Eliza asked me to be the Blue Caterpillar. I sat on an orange mushroom at the edge of the stage and before each dance read a selection from Lewis Carroll’s book.Imaginary Fathers
In July 1985, about two months before he died, I had my last serious conversation with my father, Alan. It was a short conversation, and it was not good. In one blow, it seemed to cancel all the gains I thought I had made in a lifetime of trying to win his attention and respect.Death by African Violet
My roommate and I hang out on our narrow dorm cots with their East Indian bedspreads. Incense burns, and we are speaking wisdoms when they strike us as we drink Tyrolia Pineapple Wine and smoke Newports.The Stone Collector
A month ago my wife and I were walking our dogs on the beach. A stiff breeze was raising whitecaps and Connecticut was plainly visible. There are days when you can hardly see the coast and days when it seems to loom.Excavations
It was a walk that had already yielded plenty. I had ventured far enough from the road to stand on the shore of a lake of ferns, each cupped heavenward like a satellite dish.Frank Sinatra Has a Cold
Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon in one hand and a cigarette in the other, stood in a dark corner of the bar between two attractive but fading blondes who sat waiting for him to say something.Interview with Elizabeth Hodges
Elizabeth Hodges wrote “Death by African Violet” while in the middle of a number of other writing projects. “I cannot write one thing at a time,” she said.Interview with Jonathan Holden
The award-winning author of many volumes of poetry, Jonathan Holden is better known for his verse than his essays. But he thinks the two genres are related to each other, and that this relationship is illustrated by the process he went through in writing his essay “Imaginary Fathers.”Interview with Samuel F. Pickering
Sam Pickering wrote “July, ” as he writes all of his essays, with the purposes of satisfying his restless nature and of glorifying the ordinary things in life.Interview with Louis Simpson
At face value, Louis Simpson’s “The Stone Collector” is about a man who likes to collect stones as a diversion from his day job as manager of a furniture store. Simpson took a commonplace narrative scene-walking with an acquaintance on a Long Island beach-and turned it into a meditation about work and imagination.