Gay Talese was a reporter for the New York Times from 1956 to 1965, and has since forged a reputation as one of the country's most esteemed journalists in the genre of literary nonfiction. When asked about the recent rash of nonfiction writers who have stretched the truth, Talese muses, "There's so much that's fantastic about factual life, that if you do your work as a researching writer... and you stay within the realm of reality of the people you're choosing to write about, you can find extraordinary stories."