Revolutions in writing and music

Gail Sheehy and Clay Felker

Gail Sheehy was present at the creation — or nearly so. I speak of the creation of the “gang that wouldn’t write straight,” as the literary journalists of the 1960s were once called. We’re talking about Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson— all of the usual suspects.

Sheehy was there, writing breakthrough nonfiction for New York magazine and edging toward a breakthrough in her wholly owned and operated sub-genre of literary journal...