The Best American Essays 1987

by Gay Talese (Editor), Robert Atwan (Series Editor)

Compiles the best literary essays of the year originally published in American periodicals

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Anthologies

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Gay Talese 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.

Reviews

[Bibliophile10]

Overall, this volume was more interesting and had less stuffy, specialized scholarship than the 1986 volume. Its introduction by guest editor Gay Talese (of "Sinatra Has a Cold" fame) was the funniest part--it had little say about the selections or about essay writing in general; it was really Talese telling the "behind the scenes" story of writing his Sinatra profile for Esquire (I think he figured he had a captive audience and also wanted to criticize what he sees as the plummeting quality of reportage). Talese is foremost a journalist, and his editorial choices attest to this; most of the "essays" are actually journalistic articles with a sharp observer focusing on some external subject. I'm guessing that Talese has little to say about the nature of the essay, let alone about art. Of the three standout pieces, two were actually essays (Lopate's "Against Joie de Vivre" and Scott Russell Sanders's "The Inheritance of Tools"). The only journalistic piece that I might someday return to is Calvin Trillin's "Rumors Around Town," the longest piece in the book and a great example of investigative crime journalism. As a whole, this was not a keeper.

[Ronald Wilcox]

Most of the essays in this collection were interesting, despite being written over 25 years ago. A few standouts: The Case of Harry Houdini, Against Joie de Vivre, Pictures, The Inheritance of Tools, and Land of Wizards.