Just as Shakespeare's writings have served as models for modern-day writers, True Crime : An American Anthology's collection of 350 years of "dark deeds" in 50 true crime stories can inspire 21st century creative writers with characters and plots. It covers the period from colonial times to today.
True Crime Anthology Overview
The true crimes tales in the anthology are selections of mostly magazine-length re-tellings of American crimes from Puritan execution sermons, murder ballads, and other heinous accounts. Each entry has a short commentary and introduction by the author explaining context and significance of each story.
Authors included in True Crime
There is a wide selection of authors, some of who are little known, including:
- Benjamin Franklin
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Mark Twain
- Truman Capote
- Dominick Dunne
- Ann Rule
- Calvin Trilling
- James Ellroy
- James Thurber
- Theodore Driser
- Susan Glaspell
- Zora Neale Hurston
The tales include characters and scenarios from the most notorious criminal cases in American history such as:
- Leopold and Loeb
- Charles Manson Family
- Son of Sam
- The Cleveland Butcher
- Axe murders
- Smutty Nose Island, NH
- The Helen Jewett murder
- The Kentucky Tragedy of the 1830's
- Assassination of President Garfield
- The Snyder-Gray murders
- The Lindberg kidnapping
- The Black Dahlia
Some of the stories have received less press than others and may be new to readers. The first example of American true-crime writing is an account of Mayflower pioneer John Billington, who came to America to evade his London creditors and murdered a fellow colonist with his fowling piece.
A Comprehensive Look in How Crime is Described
True Crime looks at the many ways in which American writers have explored crime in a multitude of aspects including the shock of its impact on society and the effort to make sense of the violent extremes in human behavior. The tales say as much about America as they do about murder. Described as both a connoisseur and practitioner of the genre, the author narrowed his criteria to just homicide.
Whether True Crime is used as escapist reading, a reference tool or the tales serve as models for creative writers, the book is also an outline of the social history of the United States.
About the author:
Harold Schechter, editor, is a professor of American literature at Queens College, the City University of New York. He is the author of more than two dozen books and is best known for his historical true crime accounts, most recently The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century. He is also the author of six novels, including a mystery series featuring Edgar Alan Poe.
Schechter,Harold. True Crime: An American Anthology. NY, NY; Library of America, 2008
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