Gay Talese

Reveals the story of a man who bought a motel and secretly observed his guests to satisfy his voyeuristic desires, and kept extensive journals capturing the changing sexual mores of the country.

The Voyeur's Motel

The provocative report on American sexuality that shocked the world when it was first published in 1981, Gay Talese's chronicle of American permissiveness, before the age of AIDS, is also a uniquely personal odyssey into the author's private self. Includes a new foreword by the author. Previous publisher: Dell.

Thy Neighbor's Wife

A selection of witty and provocative essays from the father of New Journalism, Gay Talese's Frank Sinatra Has a Cold and Other Essays is published in Penguin Modern Classics. Gay Talese is the father of American New Journalism, who transformed traditional reportage with his vivid scene-setting, sharp observation and rich storytelling. His 1966 piece for Esquire, one of the most celebrated magazine articles ever published, describes a morose Frank Sinatra silently nursing a glass of bourbon, struck down with a cold and unable to sing, like 'Picasso without paint, Ferrari without fuel - only worse'. The other writings in this selection include a description of a meeting between two legends, Fidel Castro and Muhammad Ali; a brilliantly witty dissection of the offices of Vogue magazine; an account of travelling to Ireland with hellraising actor Peter O'Toole; and a profile of fading baseball star Joe DiMaggio, which turns into a moving, immaculately-crafted meditation on celebrity. Gay Talese (b. 1932) is an American author. He wrote for The New York Times in the early 1960s and helped to define literary journalism or 'new nonfiction reportage', also known as New Journalism. His most famous articles are about Joe DiMaggio, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. He lives in New York with his wife, Nan Talese. If you enjoyed Frank Sinatra has a Cold, you might like George Orwell's Essays, also published in Penguin Modern Classics. 'The best American prose of the second half of the twentieth century' Atlantic Monthly 'The best non-fiction writer in America' Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather 'A masterful New Journalism pioneer ... raises the magazine article to the level of an art form' Los Angeles Times

And Other Essays

Frank Sinatra Has a Cold

Honor Thy Father

Collects a series of vignettes and essays from Gay Talese, including "Vogueland," "When I was twenty-five," and "Frank Sinatra has a cold."

Portraits and Encounters

The Gay Talese Reader

"Fascinating . . . Poignant." The Wall Street Journal In this extraordinary work of insight and interviews, bestselling author Gay Talese shares with us the lives of those we don't know and those we might wish we did: Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio, Manhattan mobsters, Bowery bums, and many others -- fascinating men and women who define our country's spirit and lead us to an understanding of ourselves as a nation. From the Paperback edition.

Fame and Obscurity

behind the scenes at The New York times : the institution that influences the world

The kingdom and the power

A factual narrative of the sexual experiences of dozens of well-known and ordinary men and women provides surprising commentary on America's changing sexual mores

"Literary legend" (New York) Gay Talese revisits his pioneering career profiling the many "nobodies" who make New York so fascinating, culminating with the strange and riveting story of Dr. Nicholas Bartha, who blew up his Upper East Side brownstone--and himself--rather than give up his beloved patch of NYC real estate. "New York is a city of things unnoticed," a young reporter named Gay Talese wrote sixty years ago. He would spend the rest of his legendary career defying that statement by noticing those details others missed, celebrating the people most reporters overlooked, understanding that it was through these minor characters that the epic story of New York and of America unfolded. Inspired by Melville's great short story "Bartleby the Scrivener," Talese now remembers the unforgettable "nobodies" he has profiled in his pioneering career--from the New York Times's anonymous obituary writer to Frank Sinatra's entourage. In the book's final act, a remarkable piece of original reporting titled "Dr. Bartha's Brownstone," Talese introduces readers to a new "Bartleby," an unknown doctor who made his mark on the city one summer day in 2006. Rising within the city of New York are about one million buildings. These include skyscrapers, apartment buildings, bodegas, schools, churches, hospitals, and homeless shelters. Also spread through the city are more than 19,000 vacant lots, one of which suddenly appeared some years ago--at 34 East 62d Street, between Madison and Park Avenues--when the unhappy owner of a brownstone at that address blew it up (with himself in it) rather than sell his cherished 19th-century high stoop Neo-Grecian residence in order to pay the court-ordered sum of four-million dollars to the woman who had divorced him three years earlier. This man was a physician of sixty-six named Nicholas Bartha. On the morning of July 10th, 2006, Dr. Bartha had filled his building with gas that he had diverted from a pipe in the basement, and then he set off an explosion that reduced the four-story premises into a fiery heap that would soon injure ten firefighters, five passersby, and damage the interiors of thirteen apartments that stood to the west of the crumbled brownstone. Gay Talese's byline has been synonymous with legendary portrayals of the city's characters, high and low. Bartleby and Me continues that tradition, concluding with an examination of a single 20' x 100' New York City building lot, its serpentine past, and the unexpected triumphs and disasters encountered by its residents and owners--an unlikely cast featuring society wannabes, striving immigrants, Gilded Age powerbrokers, Russian financiers, and even a turncoat during the War of Independence. Concise, elegant, tragic and whimsical, Bartleby and Me is the capstone of a master journalist.

Reflections of an Old Scrivener

Bartleby and Me

«Algunos de los reportajes más memorables del último medio siglo periodístico. Un clásico moderno.» Babelia Desde que allá por los años sesenta Gay Talese irrumpiera en el mundo del periodismo para revolucionar sus formas y cambiar para siempre la manera de afrontar un reportaje, sus artículos han servido de modelo a generaciones de escritores. Ya se trate de historias cotidianas protagonizadas por gente desconocida que con frecuencia nos resulta curiosamente familiar, o de perfiles de personajes famosos a los que en realidad no conocíamos tanto como creíamos, Talese es capaz de mostrarnos siempre el detalle invisible que nos revela los secretos, de introducirnos en la escena como si la estuviéramos presenciando, de hacernos partícipes de los momentos más inaccesibles. Iconos de la cultura como Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway o Peter O’Toole, de la política como Kennedy o Fidel Castro, o del deporte como Joe DiMaggio, Muhammad Alí o Joe Louis, se alternan en estas páginas con entrañables recuerdos familiares o los humildes inicios del autor en el mundo del periodismo. El nexo de unión es siempre el mismo: el inigualable estilo de Talese. «Cada pieza está marcada con el elegante estilo de Talese, su exhaustiva investigación, su hábil uso de los diálogos, su característica construcción por escenas y, sobre todo, su infalible ojo para el detalle revelador. Lo que distingue a Talese, lo que él hace mejor que nadie es sencillamente dejarse caer por la escena, observar y escuchar... Es cierto que siempre ha sido un reportero, pero también que tiene la vista y el oído de un artista. Esta antología le devuelve el brillo al término Nuevo Periodismo.» Los Angeles Times Book Review «En este libro encontrará un buen ejemplo de la mejor prosa norteamericana de la segunda mitad del siglo xx.» The Atlantic Monthly «Una excelente introducción a la obra de Talese, un autor de múltiples talentos.» Booklist «Los textos que aparecen en esta esperada y maravillosa recopilación son brillantes ejemplos de una época de la historia del periodismo en la que publicar en determinadas revistas era una forma de arte y Talese su Miguel Ángel. Este libro merece ser leído una y otra vez.» Publishers Weekly «La obra monumental de este reportero norteamericano que ha hecho del periodismo un arte.» Babelia «Gay Talese forma parte de un grupo de geniales maleantes de la máquina de escribir, junto a Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe o Norman Mailer... El arte de explicar el mundo a través de los pequeños detalles y convertir cada reportaje en una historia.» Qué leer «Gay Talese representa la elegancia... Retratos y encuentros reúne piezas maestras de este hombre que hizo del periodismo una manera de vivir.» La Vanguardia «Un modelo central en la tradición de cronistas y articulistas que han forjado una forma de narrar la realidad.» El Periódico de Catalunya «Este libro merece ser leído una y otra vez.» Honrarás a tu padre Publishers Weekly «Una reunión extraordinaria de las piezas que convirtieron a Talese en punta de lanza de eso que se llamó Nuevo Periodismo.» Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Letras Libres «Talese ha irrumpido de nuevo en la actualidad con su libro Retratos y encuentros y con declaraciones sabias que han estremecido a muchos jóvenes cachorros del nuevo periodismo, a los delfines de los viejos maestros.» Luis María Ansón, El Cultural «Algunos de los reportajes más memorables del último medio siglo periodístico.» Carles Geli, Babelia «Gay Talese forma parte de un grupo de geniales maleantes de la máquina de escribir, junto a Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe o Norman Mailer... El arte de explicar el mundo a través de los pequeños detalles y convertir cada reportaje en una historia.» Antonio G. Iturbe, Qué Leer

Retratos y encuentros

“Beautifully documented . . . no less than a landmark in the field of writing and journalism.”—The Nation “Fascinating . . . Seldom has anyone been so successful in making a newspaper come alive as a human institution.”—The New York Times In this century and the last, most of history's important news stories have been broken to a waiting nation by The New York Times. In The Kingdom and the Power, former Times correspondent and bestselling author Gay Talese lays bare the secret internal intrigues at the daily, revealing the stories behind the personalities, rivalries, and scopes at the most influential paper in the world. In gripping detail, Talese examines the private and public lives of the famed Ochs family, along with their direct descendants, the Sulzbergers, and their hobnobbing with presidents, kings, ambassadors, and cabinet members; the vicious struggles for power and control at the paper; and the amazing story of how a bankrupt newspaper turned itself around and grew to Olympian heights. Regarded as a classic piece of journalism, The Kingdom and the Power is as gripping as a work of fiction and as relevant as today's headlines. Praise for The Kingdom and the Power “I know of no book about a great institution which is so detailed, so intensely personalized, or so dramatized as this volume about The New York Times.”—The Christian Science Monitor “A serious and important account of one of the few genuinely powerful institutions in our society.”—The New Leader “A superb study of people and power.”—Women's Wear Daily

Behind the Scenes at The New York Times: The Institution That Influences the World

The Kingdom and the Power

Gay Talese. Phil Stern. Frank Sinatra Has a Cold

The inner workings of a writer's life, the interplay between experience and writing, are recounted by a master of the art. Gay Talese now focuses on his own life--the zeal for truth, the narrative edge, the sometimes startling precision, that won accolades for his journalism, and best-sellerdom and acclaim for his revelatory books about The New York Times, the Mafia, the sex industry, and the American immigrant experience. Here are his amateur beginnings on his college newspaper; his professional climb at the Times; his desire to write on a larger canvas, which led him to magazine writing and then to books. We see his involvement with issues of race, changing American sexual mores, and the ordinary men and women whose stories led to his most memorable work, and he gives us a picture of both the serendipity and meticulousness involved in getting a story.--From publisher description.

A writer's life

Het voyeursmotel

فرانك سيناترا عنده برد

«Un reportaje magnífico, escrito a lo largo de décadas, sobre un tipo que adquirió un motel en Denver para espiar a sus clientes mientras mantenían relaciones sexuales. Un reportaje de suspense donde ambos, el voyeur y el periodista, parecen rondar el delito.» Elvira Lindo, El País El esperado y controvertido libro del «maestro del periodismo»: una historia increíble y real que abre un debate ético. Poco antes de la publicación de La mujer de tu prójimo, Gay Talese recibió una carta de un misterioso hombre de Colorado que le hacía partícipe de un secreto sorprendente: había comprado un motel para dar rienda suelta a sus deseos de voyeur. En los conductos de ventilación había instalado una «plataforma de observación» a través de la cual espiaba a sus clientes. Talese viajó entonces a Colorado, donde conoció a Gerald Foos y pudo comprobar con sus propios ojos la veracidad de la historia. Además, tuvo acceso a algunos de sus muchos diarios: un registro secreto sobre el cambio producido en las costumbres sociales y sexuales de su país. Pero Foos había sido también testigo de un asesinato, y no lo había delatado. Tenía, pues, muchos motivos para permanecer en el anonimato, y Talese pensó que esta historia nunca vería la luz. Hoy, treinta y seis años más tarde, Foos está listo para hacerla pública y Talese puede darla a conocer. El motel del voyeur es una extraordinaria obra de periodismo narrativo que abre un intenso debate ético, y uno de los libros de los que más se ha hablado en los últimos años. Reseñas: «Maestro del arte del reportaje, el veterano Gay Talese ha provocado, sin proponérselo, un fogoso debate... En medio de la controversia, los principales críticos estadounidenses se han rendido a la calidad del texto.» El País Semanal «Ideal para interrogarse sobre los límites éticos del periodismo. Un nuevo libro de Talese siempre invita al disfrute... Prosa viva, exacta, repleta de detalles y matices enriquecedores escrita con su debida pausa y repleta de sentidos.» Diego Gándara, La Razón «El libro es una obra intensa que nos recuerda que un problema de estar vivo es que vemos cosas que aborrecemos pero que, aun así, nos atraen. Es posible admirarlo y, al mismo tiempo, estar queriendo arrancarnos nuestros fisgones ojos.» Dwight Garner, El Cultural «El libro perfecto para analizarse y volver a fijar nuestra razón de ser, nuestros objetivos en la vida. Un libro que, según el estado de ánimo que se coja, te puede cambiar la vida para bien o para mal.» Jesús Redondo, Tendenzias «Un pequeño monumento del periodismo y la narración.» Lorenzo Silva «Un relato espeluznante y perturbador pero también una sórdida y absorbente muestra de la vida estadounidense.» Kirkus Review «Una investigación reveladora. La ropa sucia tiene aquí manchas muy interesantes.» Publishers Weekly «Una de las mayores glorias del periodismo contemporáneo... Mito del oficio.» Antonio G. Iturbe, Qué Leer «El debate y la polémica están servidos, pero lo cierto es que el libro muestra a un Talese genuino, con gracia literaria y la potencia periodística de un observador que, en esta ocasión, no huye de las dudas ni obvia las contradicciones.» Jordi Cervera, El Punt Avui

El motel del voyeur

"An Italian ROOTS." —The Washington Post Book World At long last, Gay Talese, one of America's greatest living authors, employs his prodigious storytelling gifts to tell the saga of his own family's emigration to America from Italy in the years preceding World War II. Ultimately it is the story of all immigrant families and the hope and sacrifice that took them from the familiarity of the old world into the mysteries and challenges of the new.

Unto the Sons

De Guy Talese, el maestro del periodismo. El libro m�s pol�mico del a�o, que ser� llevado al cine por Sam Mendes y Steven Spielberg. "Querido se�or Talese: (...) Durante mucho tiempo he querido contar esta historia, pero no tengo talento suficiente, y me da miedo que me descubran."A principios de 1980, Gay Talese recibi� una carta de un hombre de Colorado que lo hac�a part�cipe de un secreto sorprendente: hab�a comprado un motel para dar rienda suelta a sus deseos de voyeur . En los conductos de ventilaci�n instal� una "plataforma de observaci�n" a trav�s de la cual espiaba a sus clientes. Talese viaj� entonces a Colorado, donde conoci� a Gerald Foos y pudo comprobar con sus propios ojos la veracidad de la historia. Adem�s, tuvo acceso a sus diarios: un registro secreto de las costumbres sociales y sexuales de su pa�s. Pero Foos hab�a sido tambi�n testigo de un asesinato, y no lo hab�a delatado.Ten�a, pues, muchos motivos para permanecer en el anonimato, y Talese pens� que esta historia nunca ver�a la luz. Hoy, Foos est� listo para hacerla p�blica y Talese puede darla a conocer.La cr�tica ha opinado: "Un magn�fico reportaje de suspense donde ambos, el voyeur y el periodista, parecen rondar el delito." --Elvira Lindo, El Pa�s- "Uno puede admirar este libro y al mismo tiempo desear arrancarse los ojos." --The New York Times, "El caso de El motel del voyeur "- "Es, a pesar o debido a su ambig�edad, la obra maestra de Talese." --Yves Hart�, Sud Ouest- "Instructivo e intrigante. Iluminador y entretenido." --The Washington Post- "Una peculiar historia demasiado buena como para no ser contada." - -Los Angeles Times- "Un relato espeluznante y perturbador pero tambi�n una s�rdida y absorbente muestra de la vida estadounidense." --Kirkus Reviews-"Una investigaci�n reveladora. La ropa sucia tiene aqu� manchas muy interesantes." -Publishers Weekly- "Caer� rendido ante este electrizante page turner que plantea todo tipo de fascinantes cuestiones period�sticas, morales y legales." --Barnes & Noble-"Una obra extra�a que evoca a Michael Powell (El fot�grafo del p�nico ) o Alfred Hitchcock (Psicosis)." -Le Figaro Magazine- ENGLISH DESCRIPTONOn January 7, 1980, in the run-up to the publication of his landmark bestseller Thy Neighbor's Wife, Gay Talese received an anonymous letter from a man in Colorado. "Since learning of your long awaited study of coast-to-coast sex in America," the letter began, "I feel I have important information that I could contribute to its contents or to contents of a future book." The man went on to tell Talese an astonishing secret, that he had bought a motel to satisfy his voyeuristic desires. He had built an attic "observation platform," fitted with vents, through which he could peer down on his unwitting guests.Unsure what to make of this confession, Talese traveled to Colorado where he met the man--Gerald Foos--verified his story in person, and read some of his extensive journals, a secret record of America's changing social and sexual mores. But because Foos insisted on remaining anonymous, Talese filed his reporting away, assuming the story would remain untold. Now, after thirty-five years, he's ready to go public and Talese can finally tell his story. The Voyeur's Motel is an extraordinary work of narrative journalism, and one of the most talked about books of the year.

Gay Talese

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