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Gay Talese on Writing, Sinatra, and the Old New Journalism

By Grace Bello October 17th, 2013

Of legendary journalist Gay Talese’s work in 1966 for Esquire, Longform.org co-founder Max Linsky said, “[The article ‘Mr. Bad News’] came out in February. And then in April, ‘Sinatra’ comes out. And then in July, ‘DiMaggio’ comes out. That’s like the greatest streak in the history of magazines!”

On Oct. 10 at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, Linsky interviewed New Journalism pioneer and “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” writer Talese in an hour-long chat about Talese’s career, literary journalism, and publishing. In attendance were over 100 young writers and editors.

“My life as a journalist really had its origins in the fact that I’m the son of two shopkeepers,” Talese said.

“It wasn’t journalism training or a degree in reporting that gave me what I wanted to be. It was my alienated background, my insufficient education … I had a background that virtually amounted to nothing useful.”

But his experience at the shop honed his conversational skills – which were essential throughout his reporting career.

Talese got his start working as a full-time copy boy for The New York Times, fetching coffee and occasionally reporting stories. However, he said, “I wanted to be a short story writer like John Cheever, like Irwin Shaw.”

“The story that most shaped my life was Fitzgerald’s ‘Winter Dreams.’ That story is so beautiful, and I wanted to write like Fitzgerald wrote, except I wanted to get the facts right.”

So in 1965, having contributed freelance pieces to Esquire, he landed a one-year contract to write for them. He left the Times.

But how did he get to profile Frank Sinatra at the height of the singer’s fame?

“It was an assignment that was given to me by the editor of Esquire. [He] was looking for – as editors are often looking for – celebrity journalism.” But Talese said, “I didn’t want to do Sinatra because he was done so much. But I did accept the assignment because I had to get paid.”

However, Talese hit a bump in the road when Sinatra refused to be interviewed by him. “When he wouldn’t talk to me, I thought, ‘Great, I don’t have to do the stupid story!'”

Yet “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” which was recently annotated by Talese and Elon Green for Harvard’s Nieman Storyboard, remains Talese’s most iconic piece.

Why does the profile endure?

“I don’t know,” said Talese. “In fact, I never thought it was any better than what I’d written about other people.”

He much preferred his previous Esquire story: “My method was to try to get to know the people really well – and I hoped they were not too well known so that I could really be the first to introduce them. And that was Alden Whitman the obituary writer.”

After “Sinatra,” Talese focused on another fellow prominent Italian American, legendary baseball player Joe DiMaggio. But this was the mid-sixties when Joltin’ Joe’s big moment was already over. Actually, this was what drew Talese to the story; like the fiction writer he had aspired to be, he was less interested in success stories and more intrigued by complex themes such as “the aftermath of glory.”

Said Talese, “When you are an obscure person yourself and you identify with obscurity, when you have that, it resonates within me so richly because it’s the kind of character I want to reilluminate.”

The conversation turned to New Journalism, the form popularized by Talese, Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe, and others during the ’60s.

“What is journalism? It’s not creative,” said Talese. “You have to [take] people who are not well known [and] describe them as if you’re a novelist or a short story writer or a playwright. It’s creativity that has to be factual.”

He also takes a cinematic approach: “I try to think, as a film director would think, how does this movie begin? I need to have a story that’s going to have scenes like a short story or a film.”

So what tips did Talese have for up-and-coming journalists who aspire to write long, narrative journalism? Pounding the pavement, speaking with sources in person, daring to turn off the tape recorder, and telling the stories of people whom you respect.

He also offered an unusual piece of advice for fellow writers who view journalism as art: “Instead of doing crap for newspapers, it’s better to work in a restaurant and find time to do the kind of research to fulfill your ambition as a curious person. Maybe you have to do it on your own.”

“Get a job at a restaurant,” he said, which raised several eyebrows in the crowd. “If you conform, the machine will grind you up.”

Follow Grace Bello on Twitter at @grace_land.

Image courtesy of  david_shankbone/flickr

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