My caller ID read: “Gay Talese.”
The byline I had once pinned on my wall was now flashing across my phone.
Just one day earlier, I’d emailed his publisher on a whim—I’d been rereading Talese’s iconic 1966 Esquire profile of Joe DiMaggio, the former Yankees star and husband to Marilyn Monroe, on the subway ride home. I’d forgotten how good it was—the way Talese casually drops details that build entire worlds, like that DiMaggio, who still holds the longest hitting streak record in baseball, “used a broken oar as a bat” as a kid. Or that when fishermen like DiMaggio’s father stepped out of bounds, they’d often find “gasoline poured onto their fish.” Or that the first thing the Yankee did upon waking was light a cigarette.
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