“All of the characters are superficial and paper-y—and dull.”
– Putnam’s. 1: 319. D. ’06. 240w.
Michelson, Miriam. Yellow journalist. †$1.50. Appleton.
Miss Michelson’s San Francisco heroine is quite as much a girl of mettle as was Nancy of “In the bishop’s carriage.” The “gay, emotional, unscrupulous little girl-reporter, listening at doors, lying, cheating, keen as a rat terrier, looks upon life as war. She bows to a code of strictly professional ethics, but it sanctions behavior of which you cannot approve.” (Atlan.) “Her quest for ‘copy’ brings her into intimate relations with public and private scandals, family quarrels, divorce cases, and murders. The unscrupulous methods which she pursues in the attempt to score a ‘beat’ for her paper are hardly less repellent than the details of the cases themselves.” (Outlook.) In the end she “gives it all up to marry the reporter that she had always secretly admired, although professionally they were at swords’ points.” (Dial.)
“Miss Michelson is as popular, as ‘catchy’ as ragtime.” Mary Moss.
+ Atlan. 97: 47. Ja. ’06. 210w.
“There are just a few writers who have succeeded in reducing to paper the atmosphere of a newspaper office ... and Miriam Michelson must be numbered among them.” Frederic Taber Cooper.
+ Bookm. 22: 373. D. ’05, 250w.
“Miss Michelson is possessed of a very vivacious and snappy style, that may make her work entertaining to those who can stand yellow journalism unexcused by daily news.”