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(Many people still dont think America has a class system.
He knew better.)
He got to begin that journalistic study at the best possible perch.
(It was an achievable task:Most of theTimes prose of that era was pretty joyless.)
The term everyone throws around for this kind of writing is the New Journalism.
Its a misleading one, because it wasnt new.
Joseph Mitchell, John Hersey heck, Nellie Bly, 80 years earlier all had done similarly immersive reporting.
Virtually every journalist working today, to varying degrees, has absorbed that lesson.
Nobody and Santa Barranza!
(What does wearing a white suit require?
That you stand aside and take notes, that you look but not touch.)
And in 1965, he and Felker, in theTribune, happened upon an idea that was irresistible.
The New Yorkerwas turning 40, occasioning a certain amount of greatest magazine that ever was praise.
The manuscript he produced was so long that it had to run in two parts.
The True Story of The Ruler of 43d Streets Land of the Walking Dead!
Yes, it was a little bit mean.
(Old trick: Write about the press, and everyone in the press will write about you.)
(He did not succeed.)
Dozens of the magazines writers, even J.D.
His eye for class and social distinction had found its perfect outlet.
Itll be taught as long as there are journalism schools.
As willThe Me Decade,the story that named the 1970s.
It is a masterpiece.
