Gay Talese
Encyclopedia
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
in the early 1960s and helped to define literary journalism. His most famous articles are about Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
, Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
and Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
.
Talese is a visiting writer at the Master of Professional Writing Program
Master of Professional Writing Program
The Master of Professional Writing Program is a graduate creative writing program which offers a variety of courses at the University of Southern California's College of Letters, Arts & Sciences....
at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
each spring.
Biography
Ocean City, New Jersey
Ocean City is a city in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States. It is the principal city of the Ocean City Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Cape May County. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 11,701...
, located just south of Atlantic City. His southern Italian father, Joseph Talese, was a tailor who had migrated to the United States from Maida
Maida
-Places:*Maida, Calabria, a comune in the province of Catanzaro, Italy**Battle of Maida, a Napoleonic battle in Calabria during the War of the Third Coalition*Maida, North Dakota, an unincorporated community in the United States-People:...
, a town in the province of Catanzaro in 1922 and his mother, the former Catherine DePaolo, was a buyer for a Brooklyn department store (he is sometimes erroneously identified as being from Brooklyn).
At school as a child, he wore hand crafted suits from his father's shop which, he later reflected in his memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
Origins of a Nonfiction Writer (1996), caused him to appear to be older than his classmates. He recounted his early years in his book Unto the Sons
Unto the Sons
Unto the Sons is a 1992 book by Gay Talese. The book traces the origins of Talese's own family, beginning with his great-grandfather in Maida, Italy, his grandfather who immigrated to Pennsylvania and Talese's father, who immigrated to the United States separately following World War I....
.
Talese graduated from Ocean City High School
Ocean City High School
Ocean City High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Ocean City, in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Ocean City School District...
in 1949.
Talese is married to another writer, Nan Talese
Nan Talese
Nan Talese is an American editor and a veteran of the New York publishing industry.-Career:Talese is Senior Vice President of Doubleday and the Publisher and Editorial Director of Nan A. Talese/Doubleday...
, a New York editor who runs the Nan A. Talese/Doubleday imprint. Gay and Nan Talese's marriage will be the subject of Talese's next book, the third in a series published by Knopf. The first two books, Unto the Sons and A Writer's Life
A Writer's Life
A Writer's Life is a 2006 autobiography by Gay Talese. The book focuses on many of the stories that Talese attempted to tell, but failed, such as spending six months working on a story about John and Lorena Bobbitt for The New Yorker only to have the piece rejected by New Yorker editor Tina...
, were published in 1992 and 2006, respectively.
Talese remains active in the Italian American community, including the National Italian American Foundation
National Italian American Foundation
The National Italian American Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational foundation that promotes Italian American culture and heritage...
, which hosted a writer's series in his name. He has been an outspoken advocate for more Italian Americans to pursue careers in writing and editing.
Origins of a writer
His entry into writing was entirely happenstance and the unintended consequenceUnintended consequence
In the social sciences, unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the outcomes intended by a purposeful action. The concept has long existed but was named and popularised in the 20th century by American sociologist Robert K. Merton...
of the then high school sophomore's attempt to gain more playing time on the baseball team. The assistant coach had the duty of calling in the chronicle of each game to the local newspaper and when he complained he was too busy to take care of it, the head coach turned to Talese to take over the duties. As he recalls in Origins,
"On the mistaken assumption that relieving the athletic department of its press duties would gain me the gratitude of the coach and get me more playing time, I took the job and even embellished it by using my typing skills to compose my own account of the games rather than merely relaying the information to the newspapers by telephone."
No matter how random this beginning, Talese soon showed he was no ordinary 15 year old high school reporter. He quickly (after only seven sports articles) was given the job of covering not only the goings-on at the school, but also given his own column for the weekly Ocean City Sentinel-Ledger. By the time he left for college in September 1949, Talese had written some 311 stories and columns for the Sentinel-Ledger.
Talese credits his mother as the role model he followed in developing the interviewing techniques that would serve him so well later in life interviewing such varied subjects as mafia members and middle-class Americans on their sexual habits. He relates in A Writer's Life:
"I learned [from my mother] ... to listen with patience and care, and never to interrupt even when people were having great difficulty in explaining themselves, for during such halting and imprecise moments ... people are very revealing—what they hesitate to talk about can tell much about them. Their pauses, their evasions, their sudden shifts in subject matter are likely indicators of what embarrasses them, or irritates them, or what they regard as too private or imprudent to be disclosed to another person at that particular time. However, I have also overheard many people discussing candidly with my mother what they had earlier avoided—a reaction that I think had less to do with her inquiring nature or sensitively posed questions than with their gradual acceptance of her as a trustworthy individual in whom they could confide."
College
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
, where his selection of a major was, as he described it, a moot choice. "I chose journalism as my college major because that is what I knew," he recalls, "but I really became a student of history."
It was here that he would begin to employ literary devices more well known in fiction, like establishing the "scene" with minute details and beginning articles in medias res
In medias res
In medias res or medias in res is a Latin phrase denoting the literary and artistic narrative technique wherein the relation of a story begins either at the mid-point or at the conclusion, rather than at the beginning In medias res or medias in res (into the middle of things) is a Latin phrase...
(Latin for "in the midst of things"). In his junior year, he became the sports editor for the campus newspaper, Crimson-White, and started a column he dubbed "Sports Gay-zing", for which he wrote on November 7, 1951):
Rhythmic "Sixty Minute Man" emanated from the Supe Store juke box and Larry (The Maestro) Chiodetti beat against the table like mad in keeping time with the jumpy tempo. T-shirted Bobby Marlow was just leaving the Sunday morning bull session and dapper Bill Kilroy had just purchased the morning newspapers.
This was before Lillian Ross
Lillian Ross (journalist)
Lillian Ross is an American journalist and author who has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1945. She was born in Syracuse, New York, the daughter of Louis and Edna Ross. With the exception of her memoir Here but Not Here, about her relationship with William Shawn, she has been...
did the same in Picture (1952) or Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
used the technique in The Muses are Heard (1956). More importantly, Talese included among his subjects both the "losers" and the unnoticed. He was more interested in those who did not attain the glory of winning and less so in hero-worshipping the winners.
Journalism – reporter
After graduating in June 1953, he moved to New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
yet could only find work as a copyboy. The job was, however, at the esteemed New York Times and he showed up for his mundane position nevertheless in handstitched Italian suits. He was eventually able to get an article published in the Times, albeit unsigned (without credit). In "Times Square Anniversary" (November 2, 1953), he interviewed the man who was responsible for running the headlines that flash across the famous marquee above Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
.
He followed this with an article in the February 21, 1954 edition concerning the chairs used on the boardwalk
Boardwalk
A boardwalk, in the conventional sense, is a wooden walkway for pedestrians and sometimes vehicles, often found along beaches, but they are also common as paths through wetlands, coastal dunes, and other sensitive environments....
of Atlantic City (something with which he was familiar as his home town of Ocean City is the next hamlet south of the gambling mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
). Yet, his budding journalism career would have to be put on hold – Talese was drafted into the United States Army in 1954.
While at the University of Alabama, he had been required (as were all male students at the time owing to the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
) to join the Reserve Officers' Training Corps
Reserve Officers' Training Corps
The Reserve Officers' Training Corps is a college-based, officer commissioning program, predominantly in the United States. It is designed as a college elective that focuses on leadership development, problem solving, strategic planning, and professional ethics.The U.S...
(ROTC) and had moved to New York awaiting his eventual commission as a second lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
. He was sent to Fort Knox
Fort Knox
Fort Knox is a United States Army post in Kentucky south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. The base covers parts of Bullitt, Hardin, and Meade counties. It currently holds the Army Human Resources Center of Excellence to include the Army Human Resources Command, United States Army Cadet...
, Kentucky, to train in the Tank Corps. Finding his mechanical skills lacking, he was transferred to the Office of Public Information where he once again worked for a local paper, Inside the Turret, and soon had his own column, "Fort Knox Confidential."
Having kept in touch with his former employers at the Times, when Talese completed his military obligation in 1956 he returned to New York as a full-fledged sports reporter. He later opined, "Sports is about people who lose and lose and lose. They lose games; then they lose their jobs. It can be very intriguing." Of the various fields, boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
held the most appeal for Talese, largely because it was about individuals engaged in contests and those individuals in the mid to late 1950s were becoming predominately non-white at the prizefight level. He wrote 38 articles about Floyd Patterson
Floyd Patterson
Floyd Patterson was an American heavyweight boxer and former undisputed heavyweight champion. At 21, Patterson became the youngest man to win the world heavyweight title. He was also the first heavyweight boxer to regain the title. He had a record of 55 wins 8 losses and 1 draw, with 40 wins by...
alone.
For this, he was rewarded with a promotion to the Albany Bureau to cover state politics. It was a short-lived assignment, however, as Talese's exacting habits and meticulous style soon irritated his new editors to the point that they recalled him to the city, assigning him to write minor obituaries. He puts it, "I was banished to the obituary desk as punishment — to break me. There were major obituaries and minor obituaries. I was sent to write minor obituaries not even seven paragraphs long."
Journalism – essayist
After a year in the Times obituary section, he began to write articles for the Sunday Times which was run as a separate organization from the daily Times by editor Lester Markel.Talese wrote The Bridge
The Bridge: The Building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
The Bridge: The Building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was a 1964 book by Gay Talese about the construction of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. The book is a straightforward journalistic account of the bridge's construction. The book was published shortly after the completion of the bridge. ...
(1964), a reporter-style, non-fiction depiction of the construction of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge that connects the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City at the Narrows, the reach connecting the relatively protected upper bay with the larger lower bay....
in New York City. Talese's 1966 Esquire article on Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold
Frank Sinatra Has a Cold
"Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" is a profile of Frank Sinatra written by Gay Talese for the April 1966 issue of Esquire. The article is one of the most famous pieces of magazine journalism and is often considered not only the greatest profile ever written of Frank Sinatra but one of the greatest...
," is one of the most influential American magazine articles of all time, and a pioneering example of New Journalism
New Journalism
New Journalism was a style of 1960s and 1970s news writing and journalism which used literary techniques deemed unconventional at the time. The term was codified with its current meaning by Tom Wolfe in a 1973 collection of journalism articles he published as The New Journalism, which included...
and creative nonfiction
Creative nonfiction
Creative nonfiction is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction, such as technical writing or journalism, which is also rooted in accurate fact, but is not primarily written in service...
. With what some have called a brilliant structure and pacing, the article focused not just on Sinatra himself, but also on Talese's pursuit of his subject.
Talese's celebrated Esquire piece about Joe DiMaggio, The Silent Season of a Hero,—in part a meditation on the transient nature of fame—also appeared in 1966. When a number of Esquire pieces were collected into a book called Fame and Obscurity
Fame and Obscurity
Fame and Obscurity: A Book About New York, a Bridge, and Celebrities on the Edge was a 1970 book by Gay Talese. The book was a collection of many of Talese's works for Esquire about New York City, and also includes his most famous celebrity profiles: "Joe Louis: The King as a Middle-aged Man",...
Talese paid tribute in its introduction to two writers he admired by citing "an aspiration on my part to somehow bring to reportage the tone that Irwin Shaw
Irwin Shaw
Irwin Shaw was a prolific American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best-known for his novel, The Young Lions about the fate of three soldiers during World War II that was made into a film starring Marlon...
and John O'Hara
John O'Hara
John Henry O'Hara was an American writer. He initially became known for his short stories and later became a best-selling novelist whose works include Appointment in Samarra and BUtterfield 8. He was particularly known for an uncannily accurate ear for dialogue...
had brought to the short story." Honor Thy Father (1971) was made into a feature film.
In 2008, The Library of America selected Talese’s 1970 account of the Charles Manson murders, “Charlie Manson's Home on the Range,” for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American True Crime.
In popular culture
Gay Talese appeared in several strips of the comic DoonesburyDoonesbury
Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
, giving an interview to radio host Mark Slackmeyer to promote his book Thy Neighbor's Wife.
Mentioned in the lyrics of the Pete Townshend song "Communication."
Men's style
Talese is a noted expert on traditional menswear and men's style. He has served as a correspondent for Gilt GroupeGilt Groupe
Gilt Groupe is a shopping website based in the United states, offering its members merchandise, clothing, home decor, delicatessen food, travel and activities. Gilt Groupe was founded in 2007 and has 3.5 million members...
.
Awards and honors
- 2011: Norman Mailer PrizeNorman Mailer PrizeThe Norman Mailer Prize or Mailer Prize is an American literary award established in 2009 by The Norman Mailer Center and The Norman Mailer Writers Colony to celebrate writers and their works...
, Distinguished Journalism
External links
- Official site
- "Gay Talese", Big Think
- "Gay Talese Reads from Thy Neighbor's Wife", Vanity Fair, April 14, 2009
- "Gay Talese: 'Sinatra Has a Cold'", NPR, September 9, 2003