A very happy 80th birthday to dapper gent and literary journalism forefather Gay Talese, whose writing at Esquire in the ’60s helped shape the direction of all profiles to come (his pieces on Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio are the standards by which all other profiles can be judged). While I cannot recommend wearing a three-piece suit to eat spaghetti, I do recommend that all writers and would-be writers read as much Talese as they can find.

A very happy 80th birthday to dapper gent and literary journalism forefather Gay Talese, whose writing at Esquire in the ’60s helped shape the direction of all profiles to come (his pieces on Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio are the standards by which all other profiles can be judged). While I cannot recommend wearing a three-piece suit to eat spaghetti, I do recommend that all writers and would-be writers read as much Talese as they can find.

Tags: gay talese esquire literary journalism frank sinatra has a cold birthday