Reporting Back: Notes on Journalism

For nearly 50 years, Lillian Ross has been writing remarkable literary journalism for The New Yorker. Her unerring "Talk of the Town" pieces and her incisive profiles have won her a legion of admirers. Many credit The New Yorker for inspiring the refinement of literary journalism, and Ross was an integral part of that effort.

In that time, Ross has built up an arsenal of journalistic techniques, which she shares here in some detail. She discusses her feelings about journalism, praising her N...