Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Antitrust Novel

Is it possible to write an enjoyable, even pulpish, novel, which is actually a (1) legally accurate, and (2) true-to-life picture of an antitrust violation? I'm thinking of Eichenwald's "The Informant," in the reading of which I learned much about the realities of antitrust conspiracies; of course, The Informant tells a true story. Nothing that Hollywood has done in this space, except for turning the Informant into a movie, is even interesting, let alone educational.

I think this would be a great line of books, which I'd call the law school "novels" series. I just wonder if it is possible. It might require a collaborative effort -- how many of us are that interesting of writers, anyway?

2 comments:

  1. Back at the dawn of the Sherman Act, Frank Norris wrote a trilogy of novels that were about cornering the wheat market, building railroad monopolies, and other various antitrust violations in the robber baron era. One of the novels was The Octopus, can't remember the names of the others. One was made into a silent film by D.W. Griffiths called "A Corner in Wheat" which is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSF7p_DAAxw.

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  2. Thanks for this! A single Kindle e-book including the following 8 novels is available for $1.99 on Amazon:

    Blix, A Deal in Wheat, A Man's Woman, McTeague, Moran of the Lady Letty, The Octopus, The Pit, The Surrender of Santiago (article), and Vandover and the Brute

    Some of these are available for free as e-books, as well, but this appears to be formatted.

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