Gay Talese facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gay Talese
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Talese in 2006
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| Born | Gaetano Talese February 7, 1932 Ocean City, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Alma mater | University of Alabama |
| Genre | Literary journalism, New Journalism |
| Years active | 1961–present |
| Notable works |
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| Spouse |
Nan Ahearn
(m. 1959) |
| Children | 2 |
Gaetano "Gay" Talese (born February 7, 1932) is an American writer. He is known for his unique style of journalism. This style is called literary journalism or New Journalism. It combines factual reporting with storytelling techniques often found in fiction.
Talese worked for The New York Times and Esquire magazine in the 1960s. He helped shape how this new kind of journalism was done. He is seen as a pioneer alongside other famous writers like Tom Wolfe and Joan Didion. Some of his most famous articles are about Joe DiMaggio and Frank Sinatra.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Gay Talese was born in Ocean City, New Jersey. His parents were immigrants from Italy. He finished high school in Ocean City in 1949.
Talese started writing by accident. When he was in high school, he wanted to play more baseball. The assistant coach usually called the local newspaper to report on games. But he was too busy. So, the head coach gave this job to Talese.
After writing only seven sports articles, Talese got his own column. It was for the weekly Ocean City Sentinel-Ledger. By the time he went to college in 1949, he had written over 300 stories.
Talese says his mother taught him how to interview people. She was a great role model for his future career.
He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1953. He chose journalism as his major because he already knew a lot about it. But he also became very interested in history. While at college, he joined the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
At university, Talese began to use storytelling methods in his articles. He would describe scenes with many small details. He also started articles in the middle of the action.
Career Highlights
Starting as a Newspaper Reporter
After college in 1953, Talese moved to New York City. He found a job as a "copyboy" at The New York Times. This meant he did small tasks around the office.
Eventually, Talese got an article published in the Times. It was about a man who managed the headlines in Times Square. He also wrote about the chairs on the boardwalk in Atlantic City.
His journalism career was paused when he joined the United States Army in 1954. He trained in the Tank Corps at Fort Knox, Kentucky. But he was not good with machines. So, he was moved to the Office of Public Information. There, he wrote for an army newspaper called Inside the Turret. He even had his own column.
When he finished his army service in 1956, he returned to The New York Times. He became a sports reporter. Talese found sports interesting because it showed people facing challenges. He especially liked boxing. He wrote many articles about boxers like Floyd Patterson.
Later, Talese was sent to cover state politics in Albany. But his careful and detailed writing style annoyed his new editors. They sent him back to the city. His new job was writing short obituaries. He worked there for a year. Then he started writing for the Sunday Times magazine.
Becoming a Magazine Writer
In 1960, Talese wrote his first piece for Esquire magazine. It was about different scenes in New York City. In 1962, the Times newspaper workers went on strike. This gave Talese time to watch rehearsals for a Broadway show. He was writing a profile about the director for Esquire. He loved this kind of reporting. He could just observe and wait for people to show their true selves.
In 1964, Talese published a book called The Bridge: The Building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. It was a non-fiction book about building the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York City. In 1965, he left The New York Times to write full-time for Esquire.
His 1966 Esquire article about Frank Sinatra, "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold", is very famous. It is considered a key example of New Journalism. The article was not just about Sinatra. It also showed how Talese tried to get close to his subject.
Talese also wrote a well-known essay about Joe DiMaggio in 1966. It was called "The Silent Season of a Hero." This piece explored how fame can change over time. Talese himself thought his best article was "Mr. Bad News." It was a profile of an obituary writer named Alden Whitman.
Many of Talese's Esquire essays were put together in a 1970 book called Fame and Obscurity. In this book, Talese said he wanted his reporting to feel like the short stories written by Irwin Shaw and John O'Hara.
In 1971, Talese published Honor Thy Father. This book was about a powerful family. It was based on seven years of research and interviews. Honor Thy Father was even made into a TV movie in 1973.
Talese signed a large contract in 1972 to write two more books. One of these books, Thy Neighbor's Wife, was published in 1981.
In 2008, one of Talese's articles was chosen for a collection of American True Crime stories. It was his 1970 account of the Charles Manson murders. In 2011, Talese received the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Journalism.
Personal Life
In 1959, Talese married Nan Talese. She is a New York editor. She manages her own publishing company. Talese has been writing a non-fiction book about their marriage since 2007. They have two daughters. Pamela Talese is a painter, and Catherine Talese is a photographer.
Talese was also a close friend of another famous journalist, Tom Wolfe.
Political Views
Talese has always been a member of the Democratic Party. However, he has sometimes defended Republican Donald Trump. He has even said that Trump was a better president than Barack Obama.
See also
In Spanish: Gay Talese para niños
