The Best of Plimpton [Paperback]

George Plimpton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 19, 1994

Featuring such classic pieces as "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch" and "The Plimpton Small-Ball Theory of Sports Writing"--the smaller the ball the better the writing--this is a rich mix of profiles, essays, and articles from a most talented and unique American literary personality.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Founder of the Paris Review, humorist, adventurer, and contributing editor to Sports Illustrated, Plimpton has selected this anthology of his "best" writing from 35 years of work. Its motif is his "participatory journalism" and how it has enabled him to render more human and accessible such activities as football, baseball, boxing, golf, music, and fireworks; such personalities as John F. Kennedy, George Bush, Leonard Bernstein, Muhammad Ali, Vince Lombardi, Marianne Moore, and William Styron; and such landmarks as Las Vegas, Palm Desert, and Newport, Rhode Island. The pieces range from "Fantasy: Sidd Finch" to "Parody: Truman Capote as Hemingway." Recommended as first-rate belles lettres , to be read in light of Bernstein's description of Plimpton as the "amateur professional."-- Kenneth Mintz, formerly with Bayonne P.L.,
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Plimpton, the professional amateur, the dashing public hero, is first and best a writer." —The New Yorker

"The Best of Plimpton shows the author to be a quietly adroit stylist with the lightest touch since E.B. White." —Newsweek

"The Best of Plimpton shows how much fun life can be." —The Boston Globe

"This is a terrific book ... pure crystal...unblemished perfection." —The Los Angeles Times

"Beautifully observed and incredibly conceived [George Plimpton's writing] is the dark side of the moon of Walter Mitty." —Ernest Hemingway

"[Plimpton] is a craftsman par excellence, a writer at work. The nature of his work has been a lifelong probe into how to have a good time. This volume is a delightful summation of a seriously eclectic career." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"These 35 profiles, essays, articles and speeches remind us that Plimpton has earned his place at the front tables in New York's best-known watering holes.... Throughout, Plimpton's writing is witty, elegant and enormously entertaining." —Playboy

"George Plimpton has a wonderful flair for comic descriptive writing. He has the patience to listen carefully to what others tell him; the imagination to visualize and ask interesting questions; and the persistence to cross-reference the best stories he is told, no matter how much time or travel may be involved. Best of all, he never patronizes, and thus has the power to draw intelligence from a stone." —Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

"Plimpton's writing is so fascinating, not only for sports fans but for students of human behavior as well.... Sincerely inquisitive, a receptive listener, and a fluid funny writer." —People

"George Plimpton shines in simile--his great device also in characterization, and [he has[ an ear for vernacular..." —Marianne Moore

"Plimpton has endless curiosity, unshakeable enthusiasm and nerve, and a deep respect for the world he enters." —The New York Times

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press (January 19, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871135035
• ISBN-13: 978-0871135032
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #803,307 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, insightful author, March 29, 2000

By 

cgabriel223 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best of Plimpton (Paperback)

Plimpton's writings tend to be scattered in numerous different and dissimilar publications, thus making an anthology like this particularly useful.

Plimpton is perhaps best known for his "participatory journalism," where he writes about his amateur forays into professional worlds, mostly of an athletic nature. But his appeal would be minimal if there were not a lot more to his writing than just this one gimmick.

Certainly he handles that particular schtick very well. Sometimes he proves reasonably competent as the "amateur professional," and sometimes things deteriorate into what Hemingway called "the dark side of the moon of Walter Mitty," but at all times his writing is crisp and insightful. He is decidedly not an amateur when it comes to his powers of observation, interpretation, and articulation.

Take, for instance, his discovery that playing in a symphony orchestra is inherently more stressful than participating in professional sports in at least one important respect, namely that in sports, mistakes and failures-as much as they might make the athlete feel momentarily embarrassed, as much as they might cause the coach to go into a tirade, and as much as they might cause fans to boo and criticize-are a part of the game. Every athlete frequently throws incompletions, misses free throws, strikes out, etc. The superstars are those who fail slightly less often than others. But mess up just once playing in a symphony for a perfectionist conductor like Leonard Bernstein and you'll find out pretty quickly that the level of tolerance for errors in that field is quite different indeed. The book is full of interesting insights like this.

But I found that the other writings, on average, held my interest at least as well as the "amateur professional" participatory writings. There were pieces that, based on the subject matter, I might have guessed would be among the least interesting to me, that instead turned out to be among my favorites. Those pleasant surprises included two pieces about family and children-one about JFK playing with daughter Caroline on the beach in 1962, and one about Plimpton's experience of taking his own daughter to see his alma mater Harvard's classic rivalry football game against Yale. Also intriguing was a piece on poet Marianne Moore that introduced the reader to her unconventional mental world by, among other things, revealing the sorts of things she notices at sporting events. I could cite several other examples.

I do have some minor quibbles with how the book is organized. The pieces are not consistently identified in terms of when the events in question occurred, when the piece itself originally appeared in print, in what publication it was originally published, whether the version of the piece in the book is the same as the original or has been altered, etc. Sometimes this type of information is stated, sometimes it can be inferred, and sometimes not even that. Some of the pieces have separate introductions; some do not. Overall, I would have appreciated a little more clarity and a little more background information.

But there is far more to like than dislike about this book, many gems amongst the three dozen or so selections. It's a fine book for the sports fan with some intellect and depth, but it deserves a wider audience than just sports fans. I'd rate it no worse than a high 3 or low 4.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent compendium, October 9, 2006

By 

Vespucci (Memphis, TN) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Best of Plimpton (Paperback)

I rank Plimpton as a top five non-fiction writer of the last half century. Unlike a considerable number of these new age "creative non-fiction" writers, his ego is not all over the page nor did he have to stretch to introduce a literary flair to his prose. Plimption can make seemingly boring subjects such as bird counting contests or fireworks museums endlessly fascinating. He also does ample justice to racy subjects such as swinger conventions and his stay at the playboy mansion.

Plimpton's writing is not pretentious and he always shows considerable respect and humor towards his subjects. A great writer and a great man.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Plimpton Knows Best, December 22, 2007

By 

Carol J. Manka (Salem, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best of Plimpton (Paperback)

George Plimpton, an accomplished writer and a fine raconteur, has gathered in this book all of his writings that he considered to be his best and each story is superb. His recounting of taking Marianne Moore to the baseball game is one of the most finely-crafted portraits of both Moore and Plimpton that I have had the pleasure of reading. Interestingly enough, the second account of meeting with Marianne is not quite as jewel-like. If you read only one item in the book, I recommend "Music: An Address at a New York Philharmonic Lunch," It paints some hilarious images in my mind that even when I've stopped crying from laughing so hard only two hours later I'd think of some image again and start laughing. Thank you, George Plimpton and Leonard Bernstein for the "Winnipeg Effect".