Killed: An Interview With David Wallis

Killed: Great Journalism Too Hot To Print
David Wallis
Nation Books, 2004
Pick this up!

A_P: How did you go about collecting the stories for the anthology? Obviously if the stories have not been published, it raises the question of how you knew they existed in the first place. Describe the process for building a book of this nature.
 
DW: I run the online syndicate Featurewell.com, which represents more than 1,000 independent journalists. I often received well-written, provocative articles that had been unfairly spiked by magazines. Then I put the word out that I was actively seeking killed manuscripts, unleashing a torrent of submissions.  I also scoured Nexis for mentions of "kill fees," and interviewed biographers of famous writers. That's how I turned up a largely forgotten book review by George Orwell, spiked by London's Observer, and an unpublished manuscript by Betty Friedan that apparently shocked the editors of McCall's in 1958, and led her to later write The Feminine Mystique.

But I realized that I had a book after I read "Travels With Bassem," a remarkable piece by Mike Sager about living in a Palestinian refugee camp during the first Intifada. Somehow, The Washington Post Magazine killed the story, which strikes me as one of the most foolish decisions in modern publishing history.
 
A_P: Did any of the stories in this collection end up in print in some altered form?
 
DW: The majority of the pieces in the book were unpublished, but some ultimately found a home at smaller publications. For instance, Erik Hedegaard wrote a piece for Details on John Mellencamp's addiction to cigarettes. It's a funny, funny story which includes the rocker's admission that he used to smoke during sex.  The magazine's advertising department, still sucking on the tit of big tobacco at the time, forced editors to kill the article. Hedegaard then offered it to other major magazines to no avail. The story finally ran in a tiny zine called Open City, but I think Killed delivers it to a much larger audience.
 
A_P: How many stories did you consider before you arrived at the 24 that made this collection? What were the criteria on which you based your selections?
 
DW: I read about 200 manuscripts. Some writers, including big names, sent me work that deserved to die. Some saw conspiracy where there was none. Ultimately, I chose suppressed articles that provoked thought or laughs, as well as remarkable stories and essays that offended the sensibilities of cautious editors.

A_P: Some of the stories, notably O'Rourke's piece on Lebanon and Sager's piece on the Intifada appear now as prescient foreshadowing -- and in a way it's almost frustrating to read them 15 and 20 years after their original composition. Did you consider this when selecting them?
 
DW: I got depressed after reading Sager's story, as I don't think much has changed in the Middle East since the '80s -- except for the fact that the conflict has grown more deadly.
 
A_P: Conason, in his blurb, calls the collection a public service and a work of art. How much of David Wallis, The Artist is in this book?
 
DW: I'm not an artist. Some journalists consider themselves artists, rather than craftsmen. Unquestionably, some talent is God-given, separating master craftsmen from also-rans, but I believe journalists have the chance to refine their writing and improve their reporting.
 
A_P: I have to assume that you arrived at this collection through some frustrating kill situations of your own; every writer has them. (Here at Arriviste, we've been planning a contest around killed works since long before we knew of your endeavor...) Was there one defining situation that spurred you to compile this book?
 
DW: I can think of two kills that I found frustrating. In 1993, Men's Journal commissioned an article about frog hunting on the Caribbean island of Dominica. Basically, a bookish Jew gets in trouble in the jungle. My editor loved the piece, but his editor declared it not "user-friendly" enough for the magazine. Of course, no readers were going to search for the elusive "mountain chicken." I have no idea why they assigned anything other than instructive articles on developing buff abs.

More recently, I interviewed the founder of Fair Trials Abroad, an organization that aids travelers stuck in legal trouble. He complained bitterly about the detainees in Guantanamo, and called George Bush a liar. The Washington Post refused to run it, a dreadful decision in my opinion.
 
A_P: Now that the book is out and receiving some favorable publicity, what reactions have you received from your colleagues in the press? Have you achieved what you set out for when creating Killed?
 
DW: The reception has exceeded expectations. Some reviewers even think Killed should become an annual series. In fact I'm shopping a book of killed cartoons right now.

I put together this book to demystify the editorial process for magazine readers, provide evidence of self-censorship in the media, and inspire some editors to think carefully before they spike a worthy but controversial story. I hope that I've achieved those goals.

Killed: Great Journalism Too Hot To Print
David Wallis
Nation Books, 2004
Pick this up!