More than a magazine, more than people: Esquire and the publishing conditions of literary journalism in the 1960s

Typically, research and writing on literary journalism center either on anecdotes and memoirs of individual authors and their writings or on the attempt to write a comprehensive history or theory of the form. Both have their shortcomings for approaching the field. The method of analyzing Esquire as a platform for literary journalism proposed by this article presents a combination of both approaches based on Alberto Melucci’s network theory. Based on the understanding of the 1960’s literary journalism as a movement, Melucci’s approach provides the groundwork for analyzing the networks of writers and editors in their respective “field of opportunities and constraints” (1989: 26). This helps scholars investigate the comprehensive conditions out of which narrative forms develop but also benefits students and authors in providing a realistic understanding of publishing circumstances for their own work.