For over six decades, Gay Talese has told New York stories. They are the stories of daring bridge builders, disappearing gangsters, intrepid Vogue editors, unassuming doormen who’ve seen too much. They are set in the star-studded salons of George Plimpton’s apartment, in the tense newsroom of a still burgeoning New York Times, in an electric studio session with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga recording their debut.

With the wit, elegance, and depth of insight that has long characterized his work, Talese’s New York reporting showcases a master of the form at his finest, making intelligible the city’s vibrant beating pulse, capturing the charming, the eccentric, and the overlooked. Whether prowling the night streets to discover the social hierarchy of alley cats, or uncovering the triumph and terror of building the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, or plunging into the hidden, sordid world of a recently blown-up apartment building, Talese excavates the city around him with a reporter’s eye and an artist’s flair, crafting delightful, profound, indelible portraits of the people who live there.

Spanning the 1950s to today, the fourteen pieces in this collection are a time capsule of what New York once was and still is—Talese proves time and time again that, even as the city changes, his view of it remains as timeless as ever.