Resources: Literary Works based on Jonestown
 
 

 

Drama

Fondakowski, Leigh, with Greg Pierotti, Stephen Wangh, and Margo Hall. The People’s Temple. Minneapolis, Minn.: The Guthrie Theater, 2005/2006. For Guthrie Theater Study Guide, click here.

Reston, James Jr. “Jonestown Express.” Plays in Process 5, no. 10 (1984).

 

Poetry

D’Aguiar, Fred. Bill of Rights. London: Chatto and Windus, 1998.

Gillespie, Carmen. Jonestown: A Vexation. Detroit, Michigan: Lotus Press, 2011.

Hirschman, Jack. The Jonestown Arcane. Los Angeles: Parentheses Writing Series, 1991.

Lambrev, Garrett. Dogstar and Poems from Other Planets. Berkeley, Calif.: Beatitude Press, 2007.

McCuistian, Washington S. A Jonestown for Worms: New Poems. Louisville, KY: Wasteland Press, 2005.

O'Shea, Teri Buford. Jonestown Lullaby. Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, 2011.

Parker, Pat. Jonestown and Other Madness. Ithaca, N.Y.: Firebrand Books, 1985.

Sutherland, Fraser. Jonestown. Toronto, Ontario: McClelland and Stewart, 1996.

 

Literary Fiction

†Blackwood, Scott. We Agreed to Meet Just Here. Kalamazoo, Michigan: West Michigan University Press, 2009.

∞Harris, Wilson. Jonestown. London: Faber and Faber, 1996.

 

Popular Fiction with Jonestown Themes or as Plot Device

#Carter, Nick. Retreat for Death. New York: Charter Communications, 1982.

Christine, Juliea. Escaping Jonestown. BookRix, 2012.

†#James, Steven. The Pawn. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Revell, 2007.

#Lescroart, John. The Hunter. New York: Dutton, 2012.

#Mankel, Henning. Before the Frost. New York: Vintage Books, 2006.

Maupin, Armistead. More Tales of the City. New York: Harper Perennial, 1980.

†–––. Further Tales of the City. New York: Harper Perennial, 1982.

#Read, Cornelia. The Crazy School. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2010.

Rodgers, William D. Cult Sunday. Denver: Accent Books, 1979.

#Wilson, Gar. Terror in Guyana. Toronto, Ont.: Worldwide Press, 1990.

 

Key to Symbols

∞ = Discussed in The Sacred and the Profane in Wilson Harris’ Jonestown by Rebecca Moore (2008); and in "Hell that springs from the grave of memory”: Sacrifice, Whiteness, and Extinction in Wilson Harris’ Jonestown by Jonathan Highfield (2008)

† = Reviewed in Using Peoples Temple to Tell a Story by Karen Stroup (2010)

# = Reviewed in Peoples Temple as Plot Device by Matthew Thomas Farrell (2012)



 
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Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple
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