Abstract
In Chronicling Trauma, Doug Underwood investigates the lives of 150 of the best-known journalist–literary figures from the United States and the British Isles, such as Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Stephen Crane, and Margaret Mitchell. His goal is to explore the role that early life trauma played in shaping their journalistic and later literary careers, in an effort to further understand trauma and its effects on journalists and writers. He argues that examining these figures can provide insight into how personal trauma influenced their journalistic and literary pursuits in ways that the study of practicing journalists may not.
Underwood draws his research from the writings of these figures, critical studies of their work, biographies, and autobiographies. He notes that working journalists ‘seldom write openly or directly about the influence of stress and trauma in their own lives – and certainly not so when they are performing their regular journalism tasks’ (p. 5). However, he argues that the journalists-turned-fiction-writers he studied often spoke of the effects of their personal traumas through the characters and themes in their novels. Therefore, studying these works offers a new and fruitful avenue for the study of trauma and the journalistic personality.
Underwood grounds his study in modern psychological research that links childhood trauma to later psychological stress and reactions to trauma. He approaches the work from a qualitative and descriptive point of view, giving the reader valuable insight into his subjects’ early lives and the trauma they experienced. He brings together a large amount of historical information and intertwines it with personal quotes from the writers he studied in a way that gives the reader a deeper understanding of who these writers really were or are, and how their early trauma shaped their writing later in life.
The book is divided into four chapters, each discussing a different aspect of trauma in the lives of these journalist-literary figures and how that trauma shaped their writings. Chapter 1 focuses on the childhood and professional traumas that influenced their careers. Underwood suggests seven reasons why these writers turned away from journalism and toward fiction as a method for exorcising their own personal demons and processing the trauma they experienced when they were journalists. Chapter 2 investigates how society and the rules of the journalism profession influenced these writers to use their talents for social justice. Underwood notes:
Many of these personalities openly pushed a literary and a political vision that was intended to transform the way the social order dealt with sexual roles, opportunities for women, and the treatment of minorities and the poor. In many cases, the journalism profession was eventually unable to hold them. (p. 82)
Chapter 3 discusses the journalist-literary figures who covered war and how their later fiction and semi-fictional work served as a method for processing what would now be referred to as post-traumatic stress. Chapter 4 provides an appropriate conclusion for the book by detailing how these writers often turned to alcohol, drugs, and reckless behavior to deal with the psychological and emotional damage done by their personal and professional experiences.
Overall, Chronicling Trauma is an interesting and insightful read if you are looking for a historical review of the traumatic circumstances that plagued some of the greatest writers in modern history. Bringing together the details of their personal tragedies and triumphs gives you a greater understanding and appreciation for the literary works of these authors. But as a study of journalism, fiction, and trauma, the book falls short. What is lacking is more concrete insight and analysis that would provide a stronger connection with the profession of journalism. The introduction and title suggest investigation of how early childhood trauma led these writers to choose journalism as a career, and the way those early life traumas influenced how they survived traumatic incidents as a journalist. But the vast majority of the work is spent discussing their early life traumas and their literary pursuits, while the portion of their lives spent as journalists is given comparably little attention. The one exception is the final chapter, which delves more deeply into the work some of the writers did while covering various wars.
Underwood notes in the introduction that he wants his work to serve as a foundation for future quantitative investigation of journalism and trauma and, therefore, shies away from over-interpreting the lives of the historical figures he studied. He wants readers to draw their own conclusions from the information he presents. However, in this case he may have become a victim of his own design. Without more interpretation and more analysis, the book reads less like a study and more like a literature review, and leaves the reader feeling that this is a work in progress, rather than a finished piece.