More importantly, it shows what potent stories can emerge from the right pairing of scribe and subject. A New Yorker profile is not a biography. The aim is to capture someone in a specific juncture of space and time, illuminating the personality and the way it fits the world. Terrific writing, of course. Her spirit is green as a bay-tree, but her flesh is worn, perhaps by the weight of her laurels.
Great writing requires great reporting.
The New Yorker is famous for giving writers weeks, even months, to report and shape their stories. The profiles are deeply sourced. When the writer sits down to craft the piece, that reporting results in real insight - and something approaching the weight of truth. The best New Yorker stories might be magical, but the editing process that produces them is less so. It's hard, meticulous work.