Award-winning writer Gay Talese has impacted generations with his storytelling through journalism in his books and articles. On November 5, he became the fourth recipient of the Illinois Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism by the University at a ceremony and dinner in New York City.

Being a recipient of the award puts him in a very prestigious class with the previous three winners; “60 Minutes” host Mike Wallace, former Washington Post editor Benjamin Bradlee and investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.

The Illinois Prize honors individuals whose career contributions to public affairs reporting “represent the highest and best achievements of American journalism.” It is given by the faculty of the College of Media at the University and journalism professor Walt Harrington is the committee chair.

“The point of the Illinois Prize is to remind the public and new generations of journalists coming up of what excellence truly is,” Harrington said. “Gay represents the best of a certain type of journalism and literally has influenced journalists from the 1950s until today, which is fifty years of influence.”

The 78-year-old Talese began his career as the sports editor for his college newspaper at the University of Alabama and eventually became a reporter at the New York Times in 1956 for nine years. He went on to write for Esquire, Harper’s Magazine, the New Yorker and Newsweek.

“The Illinois award is an illustrious example of what serious journalism can be at a time in which so much of journalism is not serious because of the internet, and it carries a weight of respect about it,” said Talese.

In 1966 he wrote a magazine article for Esquire entitled “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” which gained a lot of national attention and was named by the magazine the best story it ever published.

“That story gained a lot of attention but I don’t write about a lot of famous people, I did there, but I write about ordinary people,” Talese said.

Talese was often noted for being able to tell stories like a fiction writer while still being able to hold true to the principles of journalism. He has written about various topics including Sinatra, the sexual revolution, the Mafia and sports and is also a bestselling author of 11 books.

“By looking at how he constructed storytelling and how he made it interesting for a large population of people in this kind of literary way is good for students to think about their own forms of storytelling,” said Nancy Benson, a journalism professor who also was on the selection committee.

Talese expressed optimism about the future of journalism and said he believes it has “a solid place in the world.” He added there is always a need for storytelling and people will need journalist as their last source of the truth.

“Sometimes journalists exaggerate bad news and the newspaper business has exaggerated bad news about itself,” said Talese. “I don’t think that newspapers are on their way out and don’t believe journalism will ever disappear.”