"Ever since Honor Thy Father, he had been looking for a subject bigger than organized crime. There could be only one: sex..."

Clay Felker remade American journalism—and had the kind of outsize life that even he might have found impressive. As witnessed by Gail Sheehy, Gloria Steinem, Gore Vidal, Milton Glaser, Richard Reeves, Lally Weymouth, and others, and told to Sarah Bernard and Aaron Latham.

Twenty years after riding a mechanical bull to big-screen fortune and fame, the urban cowboy returns as a stage hero -- and the author finds that putting on a show isn't anything like they say it is in the movies.