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Watch This: Gay Talese on Tailoring and Journalism Video here "I essentially write like a tailor," Gay Talese says at one point in the video above."It's very methodical, it's very careful… I have a sense of design before I even put a needle in my work." The legendary journalist (and Esquire writer) is talking, here, about how he's carried the sense of style and the general approach to one's work that he learned from his father — an Italian immigrant and tailor by trade — through to his chosen profession. "My idea as a writer is to make the stitching...

Last Thursday, publishing-industry veteran Nan Talese was excoriated on television by Oprah Winfrey for publishing James Frey's 2003 "A Million Little Pieces," a bestselling memoir about the author's struggle to overcome drug dependency that he has since admitted is partly fictitious. But on Friday morning, Ms. Talese walked into 22nd-floor offices in Midtown Manhattan to a standing ovation from her colleagues. Soon afterward, she received a call of support from Peter Olson, chief executive of Bertelsmann AG's Random House Inc. publishing arm. "I've gotten more than 500 emails over the last few days, and the overwhelming majority have been supportive,"...