SAY WHAT? THE BEST PROFILES
Ernest Hemingway, New Yorker, 1950: Lillian Ross’s portrait of Hemingway marked her out as one of the greatest profile writers in America, credited with inventing the modern entertainment profile. She followed Hemingway for a few days in New York, shopping at Abercrombie & Fitch, visiting museums and speaking in a pseudo-Native American dialect, creating a devastating takedown of a man who remained friends with Ross for the rest of his life.
Frank Sinatra, Esquire, 1966: Gay Talese’s seminal profile of Sinatra is often hailed as the best of all time, and more than 50 years on, it’s still widely studied and debated. The narrative writing style, more common in fiction than journalism, was fresh and exciting, and despite not speaking with Sinatra, Talese captured his subject at the height of his fame through surveying his interactions with those around him.
Courtney Love, Vanity Fair, 1992: In an outrageous interview with Lynn Hirschberg, Love spoke about her marriage to Kurt Cobain and her career, but it was a line near the end that caused the biggest stir, when she revealed she used heroin while pregnant with Frances Bean. Child welfare officers removed her daughter for a short period following publication. In 2015, she admitted she had taken heroin while pregnant.
Chris de Burgh, Independent, 2012: Deborah Ross’s uproarious profile of de Burgh painted a man lacking in selfawareness, boasting about his 200,000 Facebook followers, describing Lady in Red as “a huge worldwide hit, which is still a hit, worldwide” and discussing how he saves money on toothpaste.