Susan Orlean reflects on Esquire cover story 30 years later at University of 麻豆果冻传媒 at Lafayette Levy Lecture

Written byMarie Elizabeth Oliver

Published

New Yorker writer Susan Orlean stood before a captive audience at the University of 麻豆果冻传媒 at Lafayette鈥檚 Angelle Hall auditorium and compared her work as a reporter to the orchid hunters she wrote about in her bestselling book, 鈥淭he Orchid Thief.鈥&苍产蝉辫;

鈥淭here is an element there of being the explorer and then coming back to say, 鈥楲ook what I found,鈥欌 said Orlean. 鈥淎nd what is it that I found? I found a story.鈥

Orlean wove anecdotes from some of her most famous pieces of creative nonfiction with commentary on her writing process as part of the Department of English鈥檚 Flora Plonsky Levy Lecture series. 

She revealed her secret to building rapport with the subjects of her stories 鈥 staying silent, so they know they can trust her to listen. Orlean illustrated this and the method behind her distinct brand of storytelling by pulling the curtain back on her reporting for the classic, 鈥90s Esquire cover story, 鈥.鈥&苍产蝉辫;

Orlean said her editor originally asked her to write a profile of Macaulay Culkin, but she had another idea.

鈥淚 said to my editor, 鈥榃ell, how about if I just write about an ordinary 10-year-old boy,鈥 and to my delight and then horror my editor said, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 a great idea, go ahead,鈥欌 she explained.

This on-deadline reporting journey eventually led her to the home of friend-of-a-friend in suburban New Jersey where Orlean found herself sharing a breakfast table with her source, who sat stunned when he realized she鈥檇 be tagging along with him to school.

Of course, he eventually opened up, and she met her deadline. Orlean called the article, 鈥渢he absolute distillation of my belief in an ordinary story being valuable.鈥&苍产蝉辫;

She said even though most of her writing touches on modern culture, the pieces themselves have aged well.

鈥淲hat I鈥檓 interested in is something deeper that is about the way we live and who we are and what we try to make of our lives,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hat to me is not about a moment in time; it鈥檚 deeper than that.鈥

To the delight of almost everyone in attendance, this theory proved itself in real time when a member of the audience raised her hand to tell Orlean she still had a copy of that Esquire magazine tucked away in her Lafayette home. She said the cover story resonated with her as the mother of a 10-year-old boy when the piece was written more than 30 years ago.

The yellowed, December 1992 issue appeared on Orleans book signing table after the lecture. ("I knew just where it was," the owner said.)

As Orleans scrolled her Sharpie signature over Macaulay Culkin鈥檚 10-year-old face, she said she believes an appreciation for storytelling will endure in the age of Artificial Intelligence.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been writing books and reading books for a really long time. I don鈥檛 think they鈥檙e going to go away because of an algorithm,鈥 said Orlean. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 a future anyone wants. And if we don鈥檛 want it, we won鈥檛 go there.鈥

Photo caption: Susan Orlean, the bestselling author of the nonfiction book 鈥淭he Orchid Thief鈥 and longtime staff writer for The New Yorker magazine spoke at 麻豆果冻传媒 Lafayette鈥檚 2023 Flora Plonsky Levy Lecture. The free event was held on Oct. 4, in Angelle Hall auditorium. Photo credit: Corey Hendrickson