and i was approached by harold hayes, who was the editor of esquire, the end of 61, and i was asked if i wanted to be an editor of esquire. of course. he said well we've got other candidates. here's six months of esquire. critique them and give me 20 ideas for the pieces. esquire that was in this greater glory days, large sized magazine and norman mailer was writing for it, and every naim you could think of he doesn't have any other candidates. i went home and i wrote a critique and 20 new ideas, and i handed them to him and he said get back to me and i thought to myself when going to make these so impressive he will have to call me the next day and give me the job, which he did. but i later learned when i had lunch with him an old friend of mine michael herr cultic author tough dispatches -- >> guest: c-span: he endorses your book on the back? >> guest: he does. we call him mckee. he calls me johnny. for me he's mckee. we grew up, you know, a great school friend from high school and -- i yet meijer him enormously. he said when did you get your shot at esquire? i said in december. he s

that attracted attention and that is where harold hayes thought of hiring one of these people and said you did that? go and have a look at me add to john berendt it just so happened i had just graduated from harvard and i was at columbia about to get a master's. but i did not get. >>c-span: how many years did you right for "esquire"? >> guest: the end of 61 through 69. . .