"The Kingdom and the Power," Gay Talese's 1969 book, recounted power plays and family feuds at The New York Times, where he rose from copyboy to reporter.A work of non-fiction that read like a well-observed novel, it was his first bestseller – one that took Talese six years to write.
"I've always been a very slow writer," he said."Most journalists are restless voyeurs who see the warts on the world, the imperfections in people and places.The sane scene that is much of life, the great portion of the planet unmarked by madness, does not lure them like riots and raids, crumbling countries, and sinking ships, bankers banished to Rio and burning Buddhist nuns – gloom is their game, the spectacle their passion, normality their nemesis."From "The Kingdom and the Power""I want the reader to have a picture in mind, as I have myself," Talese said.Gay Talese is a legend among writers and reporters.
His career, both celebrated and, at times, controversial, spans some 70 years.Recently, the New York Public Library acquired his professional and personal archive.
The first piece he ever wrote in The New York Times was about The New York Times, specifically the lit-up sign that broadcast headlines in five-foot-high letters.That sign, which revolved around the Times building, was a fixture in Times Square during the early 20th century.
Hardly anyone thought about who changed the lightbulbs."There used to be a guy on the fourth floor of that building who would write in a machine that would put the bulbs around the building that made the headlines," Talese said.Electrician James J.
Torpey got his name in the paper.Talese didn't.
But, he'd found his calling."I wanted to be the lamplighter for those people who were in the dark," Talese said.
"That was my main ambition.I wanted to write about people and make them known enough to have to have an obituary written about them, 'cause they were known."Robert Boynton, a professor at the Arthur L.
Carter Journalism Inst...