Fame and Obscurity
Gay Talese · 1970
Contains "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" (1966, Esquire), often called the greatest magazine profile ever written. Talese brought cinematic scene-setting to nonfiction. His profiles are essays in disguise.
The case against
Sinatra towers over everything else here, which is the problem: the collection bundles that one transcendent profile with the Joe DiMaggio piece, a few strong portraits, and a stack of early New York sketches that read like apprentice work. Talese's reconstructed thoughts and novelistic interiority also ask for a trust the method cannot fully repay. Buy it for one essay; skim accordingly.
Essays · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
