Gay Talese

Gay Talese
Name	Gay Talese
Caption	Gay Talese in 2011
Birth name	Gaetano Talese
Birth date	07 February 1932
Birth place	Ocean City, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Author, Journalist
Education	University of Alabama (B.A.)
Spouse	Nan Talese (m. 1959)
Notableworks	Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, The Kingdom and the Power, Honor Thy Father, Thy Neighbor's Wife
Awards	George Polk Award (1980), Norman Mailer Prize (2010)

Gay Talese is an American author and journalist, widely regarded as a pioneer of New Journalism and literary nonfiction. His immersive, meticulously detailed profiles and books transformed traditional reporting by incorporating novelistic techniques. A longtime contributor to publications like Esquire and The New York Times, his work has profoundly influenced narrative journalism and creative nonfiction.

Early life and education

Born Gaetano Talese in Ocean City, New Jersey, he was the son of Italian immigrants, a tailor father from Calabria and a mother who was a buyer for a dress shop. His childhood was spent observing the community from his family's home above their haberdashery, an experience that honed his eye for detail and character. He attended the University of Alabama, where he studied journalism and edited the campus newspaper, The Crimson White, before graduating in 1953. After college, he served for two years in the United States Army before beginning his professional writing career.

Career

Talese began his career in 1955 as a copyboy for The New York Times, quickly rising to become a sports reporter and later a feature writer. His innovative feature stories for the Times caught the attention of Harold Hayes, the editor of Esquire, who published his groundbreaking 1966 profile, Frank Sinatra Has a Cold. This article, famous for its behind-the-scenes portrait of Frank Sinatra without a direct interview, became a landmark of New Journalism. He left the Times to write books, publishing The Kingdom and the Power (1969), a seminal behind-the-scenes history of the newspaper. Subsequent bestsellers like Honor Thy Father (1971) about the Bonanno crime family, and Thy Neighbor's Wife (1980), a study of sexual mores in America, cemented his reputation for immersive, book-length narratives.

Writing style and influence

Talese's signature style involves exhaustive research, scene reconstruction, and a focus on revealing details, often spending months or years with his subjects. He eschews first-person narrative in favor of a detached, omniscient perspective, drawing from techniques common in fiction writing. Alongside contemporaries like Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, and Joan Didion, he helped define the New Journalism movement, elevating journalism to a literary art form. His work has influenced generations of writers in magazine writing, long-form journalism, and nonfiction books, emphasizing narrative depth over mere reportage.

Personal life

In 1959, he married Nan Talese, who became a prominent book editor and publisher at her own imprint within Doubleday. They have two daughters and have lived for decades in Manhattan and Bridgehampton, New York. He is known for his meticulous, dapper personal style, often wearing custom suits from his family's tailoring tradition, and maintains a disciplined writing routine in his Manhattan office.

Selected works

* New York: A Serendipiter's Journey (1961) * The Bridge (1964) * The Kingdom and the Power (1969) * Honor Thy Father (1971) * Thy Neighbor's Wife (1980) * Unto the Sons (1992) * A Writer's Life (2006) * The Voyeur's Motel (2016)

Awards and honors

Talese has received numerous accolades throughout his career, including the George Polk Award for Career Achievement in Journalism in 1980. He was a finalist for the National Book Award and has been honored with the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Journalism in 2010. His papers are archived at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and he has been awarded several honorary doctorates from institutions like the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Drew University.

Category:American non-fiction writers Category:American journalists Category:1932 births Category:Living people