"Vivid storytelling built on exacting research." —Bill Keller, New York Times Book Review In 1735, struggling printer John Peter Zenger scandalized colonial New York by launching a small newspaper, the New-York Weekly Journal. The newspaper was assailed by the new British governor as corrupt and arrogant, and as being a direct challenge against the prevailing law that criminalized any criticism of the royal government. Zenger was thrown in jail for nine months before his landmark one-day trial on August 4, 1735, in which he was brilliantly defended by Andrew Hamilton. In Indelible Ink, Pulitzer Prize–winning social historian Richard Kluger has fashioned the first book-length narrative of the Zenger case, rendering with colorful detail its setting in old New York and the vibrant personalities of its leading participants, whose virtues and shortcomings are assessed with fresh scrutiny often at variance with earlier accounts.

A biography of the famous printer who was arrested and tried for writing articles criticizing the government.

Peter Zenger was arrested for publishing disparaging remarks about the governor of colonial New York in his newspaper. His subsequent trial defense proved essential for the "freedom of the press" inclusion in the Bill of Rights' First Amendment. Putnam explores the articles in question and their import to colonial government, and how the trial impacted the small-press publisher's life, as well as the precedent's continuing influence on modern law.

Printer John Peter Zenger went to trial in 1735 for publishing articles that criticized the colonial governor of New York. Help your readers to learn how his case helped shape the First Amendment, the definition of libel, the vindication of truth as a legal defense, and the right of a journalist to protect his or her sources. Readers will learn how Zenger's legacy established norms for the freedom of the press and how it remains relevant in the practice of journalism today.

Trial In The Supreme Court Of Judicature Of The Province Of New York In 1735 For The Offense Of Printing And Publishing A Libel Against The Government.