From New Journalism to Modern Gonzo: Joan Didion, Gail Sheehy & Barbara Ehrenreich
By Alex J. Coyne | On December 3, 2024 | Comments (0)
Gonzo journalism is a writing style strongly associated with Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson. However, others have contributed their voice to immersive journalism since the genre’s earliest roots in New Journalism.
Here we’ll explore the work of Joan Didion, Gail Sheehy, and Barbara Ehrenreich in this context as three impactful female gonzo journalists.
Where the author becomes central to the story or investigation is an example of immersive or gonzo journalism.
A Brief Introduction to Immersive Journalism
The first use of the term “New Journalism” is credited to Matthew Arnold in 1887, and in more recent times, to Tom Wolfe. Gonzo journalism evolved from there, originating from a 1970s article about the Kentucky Derby published in Scanlan’s Monthly. Since then, immersive nonfiction is another broad, descriptive phrase for this particular journalistic style.
However, some sources have stated that the first use of the word “gonzo” was used by the Boston Globe editor to describe Thompson’s writing style. Collins Dictionary lists the meanings for gonzo as “wild or crazy” or alternatively as “explicitly indicating the writer’s feelings at the time of witnessing the events.”
The phrase “crazy” would also be used to describe any events surrounding the gonzo author or observer, with Thompson noting: “If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.”
Gonzo, immersive, or investigative journalism sometimes adds responsibility or risk to reporting a story. However, gonzo journalism is never written as deliberate recklessness on the author’s part—there’s always a sense of responsibility even if stories or topics might get “crazy”.
Once the journalist becomes central to their story, you have a possible contender for what might be immersive nonfiction or gonzo journalism. For example, it can be argued that one of its early pioneers was Nellie Bly (1864–1922) who had herself institutionalized so that she could write the now-famous exposé, Ten Days in a Madhouse.
Bly’s writing also took her on a trip around the world in 72 days— she took inspiration from Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days (1872) to see whether it was truly possible. Her real journey beat the fictional one by more than a week.
Modern gonzo journalism and immersive nonfiction have shown no signs of stopping or slowing down. The Gonzo Foundation promotes modern gonzo journalism by preserving Hunter S. Thompson’s legacy and writings.
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Joan Didion
Joan Didion (1934–2021) was one of gonzo journalism’s pioneers. Didion typed out Ernest Hemingway’s works as a writing exercise. This technique was echoed by Hunter S. Thompson, who did the same with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing.
She published her debut novel Run River in 1963, though focused much of her work on immersive nonfiction. Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) is a seminal work that explores California life and the countercultural hippie movement.
Didion’s essay for The Saturday Evening Post in 1967 described the darker side of Haight-Ashbury counterculture—shooting meth and dropping acid, a sharp contrast to the Summer of Love that was being portrayed in the media.
The nonfiction work Salvador (1983) covered the Salvadorian civil war from first-hand perspective—truly immersive journalism. In 1992, she published another essay collection titled After Henry.
Her New York Times essay “Why I Write” explored Didion’s motivations: “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see, and what it means.”
Didion’s essay “In Bed” described her struggle with chronic migraines. She wrote: “Four, sometimes five times a month, I spend the day in bed with a migraine headache, insensible to the world around me.”
The Year of Magical Thinking chronicled the grieving process after her husband’s death. Written in 2004, it was published in 2005. Didion’s last book was an essay collection Let Me Tell You What I Mean (2021).
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Gail Sheehy
Gail Sheehy (1936 – 2020) was a pivotal immersive nonfiction writer, journalist, and political essayist. She examined the dark side of city living, often intermingled with her first-person perspective. She wrote for some of creative nonfiction’s most familiar magazines and publications, including Vanity Fair and New York.
Sheehy began writing sales and advertising copy for retailer J.C. Penney. She later became known for serious, hard-hitting feature writing. Like many immersive nonfiction authors, Sheehy’s writing put controversial topics under the spotlight. Famously, Sheehy provided in-depth and never-before-seen coverage of the Kennedy family.
Gail Sheehy wrote a 1969 feature article called Speed City for New York Magazine. Eventually, the idea evolved into the longer work Speed is of the Essence (1971), a book highlighting the evils of drug addiction and methamphetamine.
Redpants and Sugarman later became an explorative 1971 feature article about city prostitution.
The song Sugar Man by Rodriguez (professional mononym of Sixto Diaz Rodriguez) was recorded in 1969—and released in 1970 from the album Cold Fact. The Tom Waits song Downtown Train also makes a passing reference to “redpants and the sugar man” in 1985.
Sheehy’s influence stretched beyond journalism and into popular culture. Her writing continued to follow immersive journalism and gonzo-related writing.
Sheehy joined the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) as an associate in 1977. Today, the list contains a worldwide list of female journalists and press staff, including Sena Christian, Kashini Maistry, and Dorothy Abbott.
She continued in her highly detailed political coverage, and some of her focused pieces about Hillary Clinton were collected in the book Hillary’s Choice (1999). Sheehy’s writing evolved as she aged, and her later essays more readily covered aging and grief. Later books included Sex and the Seasoned Woman (2006) and Passages Into Caregiving (2010).
Gail Sheehy’s final work was a memoir—Daring: My Passages: A Memoir (2014). She passed away in 2020 at the age of 83. In her New York Times obituary, Sheehy was described as a “journalist, author, and social observer.”
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Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich (1941 – 2022) was an influential news writer, journalist, and creative nonfiction author. She received her PhD in cellular immunology. However, she dedicated her life to social causes and commentary after giving birth to her daughter in a public healthcare clinic in 1970.
The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) lauds Ehrenreich’s “pen and sarcastic wit,” which became part of her characteristic writing style. Ehrenreich focused much of her writing on social causes, including healthcare, economics, and women’s rights. She became familiar as a columnist whose work turned into more than twenty published books.
In 1978, Ehrenreich published one of her most famous titles: For Her Own Good. This work explored the treatment of women, illustrated with “150 years of expert advice” that put women at a disadvantage in healthcare and science.
Ehrenreich was also known for such nonfiction works as The American Health Empire (1971); Witches, Midwives, and Nurses (1972); and The Snarling Citizen (1995). The Worst Years of Our Lives (1990) collected more of Ehrenreich’s essays, focusing on the progression of female rights—and the lack thereof.
The 2001 nonfiction book Nickeled and Dimed continues the tradition of immersive journalism. In this case, Ehrenreich cast a spotlight on American income by living the actual experience of getting by on minimum-wage jobs, and then documenting the results.
The 2005 book Bait and Switch: The Futile Pursuit of the American Dream was another one of Ehrenreich’s immersive works. For this book, she assumed the role of a corporate employee climbing the company ladder—the description calling it “the shadowy world of the corporate unemployed.”
Bright-Sided (2009) explored the downsides of “positive thinking” and the psychological impact of being told to be happier in the face of financial or social issues. This was a deliberate commentary on “guru-like” thinking, published during the self-help boom.
Her writing focused often on topics like social or economic injustices, and took an insider’s perspective on these issues. Ehrenreich stands out as an important gonzo journalist, because she was never afraid to immerse herself in the story — Living with a Wild God (2014) explored her thoughts on religion as a nonbeliever.
Ehrenreich wrote features for numerous publications, including Vogue, Salon.com, Harper’s Magazine, and The New York Times. Her last book was a collection of essays called Had I Known, published in 2020. Barbara Ehrenreich, called a “myth-busting writer and activist” in an obituary, passed away in 2022.
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Contributed by Alex J. Coyne, a journalist, author, and proofreader. He has written for a variety of publications and websites, with a radar calibrated for gothic, gonzo and the weird. His features, posts, articles and interviews have been published in People Magazine, ATKV Taalgenoot, LitNet, The Citizen, Funds for Writers, and The South African, among other publications.
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