A Cold Email Got Me My Job—and an Afternoon with Gay Talese

My caller ID read: “Gay Talese.” 

The byline I had once pinned on my wall was now flashing across my phone. 

Just one day earlier, I’d emailed his publisher on a whim—I’d been rereading Talese’s iconic 1966 Esquire profile of Joe DiMaggio, the former Yankees star and husband to Marilyn Monroe, on the subway ride home. I’d forgotten how good it was—the way…