Did someone else already post this? Even if they did, these stories -- by C.J. Chivers, Tom Junod, Richard Ben Cramer, Gay Talese, John Sack, Tom Wolfe, and Norman Mailer -- are worth another look. For its 75th anniversary, Esquire named them the seven best in its history.
Here's the link.
Who's read all of them?
Which one is your favorite, and why?
Do you know of any better than these that should have made the list instead?
I know three of these stories well, two as iconic stories of the New Journalism era, and from a particular interest in Richard Ben Cramer, who I first met in 1978. Here are the highlights in my mind: 1) Gay Talese on Frank Sinatra: Talese created the story from an amazingly detailed outline, posted on a wall, I think. 2) Tom Wolfe on stock car racer: I think this is the story he wrote in a fury as a memo to Clay Felker, who took the "Dear Clay" salutation off of it. (Hope I'm not screwing this up.) 3) Then there is Cramer's amazing profile of an athlete notoriously cranky with the press, and Cramer gets some amazing stuff, just by hanging around, and hanging around, without getting shown the door. Not sure how he did it.
I'm pretty sure you got all the details right on the Talese and Wolfe stories, Roy. It's also worth noting that Wolfe wrote his story - all 45 typed pages of it - in one sitting the night before/morning it was due.
I believe Talese also said in an interview that Esquire editors didn't change a word of his story before printing it.