Gay Talese
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Fidel Castro: The Playboy Comandante
The comandante produced ideological fantasies on a mass scale within the context of the Cold War which led to an exotic, sexy, and happy vision of Cuba.
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Truth and Beauty: Talking with Joshua Wolf Shenk
The new Editor-in-Chief of The Believer dismantles stereotypes of Las Vegas, discusses the magazine’s acquisition, and makes a case for bringing journalism into the academy.
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Notable NYC: 1/14–1/20
Saturday 1/14: Carol Becker, Luisa Greenfield, Akil Kirlew, Caroline Koebel, Mark Roth, Morgan O’Hara, and Rachel Stevens celebrate the release of the latest issue of ELSE Journal. Powerhouse, 6 p.m., free. Carrie Bennett, Aimee Harrison, Marco Maisto, Kevin Mclellan, and…
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The Rumpus Interview with Terry McDonell
Terry McDonell talks about his new memoir The Accidental Life and his career in the magazine business, which spans the beginning of New Journalism through the digital revolution.
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To Make Good Art from Bad Things
Gay Talese’s new book The Voyeur’s Motel has garnered some well-earned bad press after its source was discredited. But was it any good? For The New Republic, Alexandra Molotkow argues that to be worth reading, Talese would have had to offer…
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Gay Talese: Inspired By Men
Gay Talese, well-known for being a pioneer of the New Journalism along with writers like Hunter S. Thompson and Truman Capote, apparently couldn’t name any woman writer who’d inspired him when asked at a recent Boston University event. Amy Littlefield, a…
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Mr. Bad News Who?
It can be a harrowing experience, Whitman knows, requiring that the writer become an instant historian, assessing in a few hours the dead man’s life with lucidity, accuracy, and objectivity. Gay Talese believes “Mr. Bad News” is one of the…
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Frank Sinatra Has an Annotated Profile
Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon in one hand and a cigarette in the other, stood in a dark corner of the bar between two attractive but fading blondes who sat waiting for him to say something. So begins…
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Please Stop Yelling: An Openly Subjective Review of The Lifespan of a Fact
Essayist John D’Agata and fact-checker Jim Fingal co-wrote a book called The Lifespan of a Fact. I have read every review about the book since. It seems that Lifespan isn’t being reviewed, but instead a status quo is being swiftly and aggressively defended.
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How Does He Do It?
Being overwhelmed by the myriad distractions and endless information floating around the universe can feel a personal struggle. How come it seems like everybody else can deal with it so calmly? This is how Gay Talese, one of the most…