Gail Sheehy | |
|---|---|
 Sheehy in 1981 | |
| Born | Gail Henion November 27, 1936 Mamaroneck, New York, U.S. |
| Died | August 24, 2020 (aged 83) Southampton, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Journalist, author |
| Education | University of Vermont (BA) Columbia University (MA) |
| Literary movement | New Journalism |
| Notable works | Passages |
| Spouse | |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
Gail Sheehy (born Gail Henion; November 27, 1936[1] – August 24, 2020)[2] was an American author, journalist, and lecturer. She was the author of seventeen books and numerous high-profile articles for magazines such as New York and Vanity Fair. Sheehy played a part in the movement Tom Wolfe called the New Journalism, sometimes known as creative nonfiction, in which journalists and essayists experimented with adopting a variety of literary techniques such as scene setting, dialogue, status details to denote social class, and getting inside the story and sometimes reporting the thoughts of a central character.
Many of her books focus on cultural shifts, including Passages (1976), which was named one of the ten most influential books of our times by the Library of Congress.[3] Sheehy penned biographies and character studies of major twentieth-century leaders, including Hillary Clinton, both presidents Bush, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. Her most recent book, Daring: My Passages (2014), is a memoir.[4]
Sheehy's article "The Secret of Grey Gardens", a cover story from the January 10, 1972, issue of New York, brought the bizarre bohemian life of Jacqueline Kennedy's aunt Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and cousin Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale to public attention. Their story was the basis for the film Grey Gardens and a Broadway musical of the same name.
- ^ Gail Sheehy, Journalist, Author and Social Observer, Dies at 83
- ^ "Journalist and Author Gail Sheehy Dies at 83". Variety. 2020-08-25. Archived from the original on 2023-06-03.
- ^ "Overview" Archived 2019-01-19 at the Wayback Machine. Gail Sheehy.
- ^ World Archipelago. "Daring: My Passages". HarperCollins US.