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George, Being George: George Plimpton's Life as Told, Admired, Deplored, and Envied by 200 Friends, Relatives, Lovers, Acquaintances, Rivals--and a Few Unappreciative ...

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Nelson Aldrich, already a noted and perceptive writer, has done a marvellous job of creating this oral history of George Plimpton whom he knew well all his life. There are so many interviews with people who had disparate contacts, opinions, and experiences with George, that his joyful but complicated life really shines through. My wife, my children and I knew him pretty well,in a purely social way; I didn't work for him, didn't go out with him, didn't start a magazine with him and was determinedly just a non-lit pal. Thus,I was so enthralled by the way Aldrich covered the endless facets of George's life, weaving in the fascinating family tensions, the serious writing,the glamorous ladies,the incredible parties, and his more famous sports adventures. There is a wonderful lack of tidy sequence to the book, and that I can tell you was completely George. It's a surprising adventure for someone who wants to know a unique man, set in the cinematic background of New York in the last fifty years.

Geoffrey McNair Gates

The reputation of George Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was well-established prior to the publication of this oral biography of him five years after his death. However, dozens of those who knew him best will help others who only knew of him to gain an even better understanding of who and what he was...and wasn't. Credit Nelson Aldrich with a brilliant job of obtaining, organizing, and editing the abundance of material. The book's title could not be more appropriate as a prefix to various personal accounts.

For example:

1. "George, being George," he once talked the Detroit Lions into letting him participate in their pre-season program and was even allowed to play (as QB, of course) in one of the team's scrimmages games.

2. Immediately after Robert Kennedy was shot, he helped to subdue Sirhan Sirhan.

3. Decided that he was uniquely prepared to conduct oral histories of Truman [Capote] and Edie [Sedgwick] and, of course, he did.

4. Agreed to serve as the first editor of The Paris Review that was co-founded in 1952 by Peter Matthiessen, Thomas H. Guinzburg, and Harold L. Humes. He remained in that position until

5. Also pitched against Major League players prior to an All-Star game.

His other adventures and misadventures include sparring with professional boxers Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson, participating in a pre-season scrimmage with the Baltimore Colts action against his previous team, the Lions, briefly playing goalie for the Boston Bruins, competing with an 18 handicap against PGA players such as Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, losing badly in a tennis match with Richard ("Pancho") Gonzales, and failing in an audition to join the Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus as an aerialist. On another occasion, he somehow obtained a temporary percussionist's job with the New York Philharmonic when Leonard Bernstein was its conductor.

As I read this book, I was reminded of James Thurber's Walter Mitty who escaped the boredom of his life and the miseries of his marriage by imagining himself in all sorts of situations that are far more exciting and (especially) much more glamorous. Having an equally active imagination, George also proceeded to do (or at least attempt to do) whatever seemed like "fun" while living an already exciting and glamorous life that included relationships with those who share their reminiscences and observations in this book. The several hundred contributors include (listed in alphabetical order) Arnold ("Red") Auerbach (former coach of the Boston Celtics with whom George also played briefly), Bill Curry (former NFL player and head coach of Alabama and Kentucky), Hugh Hefner (founder and CEO of Playboy Enterprises), A.E. Hotchner (Hemingway authority as well as co-founder and partner, with Paul Newman's Newman's Own food products), Alex Karras (All-Pro defensive tackle with Detroit Lions), Norman Mailer (author of 37 books), Freddy Espy Plimpton (George's first wife), Sarah Dudley Plimpton (George's second wife), Gene Scott (widely recognized as "Tennis's Renaissance Man," "the most controversial figure in the game," and "the conscience of tennis"), William Styron (author of many works that include Lie Down in Darkness and Sophie's Choice), Calvin Trillin (staff writer for The New Yorker since 1963), and Gore Vidal (author and playwright).

Each of these and the other contributors share her or his reminiscences of "George, being George" from his student years at various schools and then Harvard, through his lengthy association with The Paris Review, until the years immediately prior to his death when health issues precluded almost all physical activities and yet he still retained (in his words) "the gumption to get out and try one's wings." Together, the mini-contributions -- from so many different people, recalling different moments in different places at different times - create a multi-dimensional portrait of a truly unique person. Almost a century ago in a speech delivered at the Sorbonne, Theodore Roosevelt praised what he called "the man in the arena." He could well have been describing George Plimpton: "Credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

If asked to respond to Roosevelt's description, contributors to this book would probably explain "that's just George, being George."

George Plimpton was a guy who lived life to the fullest every day of his life. This book by Nelson Aldrich, using letters and statements from his friends and wife and others clarifys the way he chose to live, bringing The Paris Review to fruition, and following his adventures in the sporting world and beyond. I met him once aboard a transatlantic crossing on the QE2, and thoroughly enjoyed his company and his tales of his life.
This was a page turner for me and highly recommend this book.

George Plimpton was the editor of the Paris Review, a droll and self-deprecating sports journalist, a toastmaster supreme, and a prominent but rebellious society figure. In all of these public roles, Plimpton evinced immense class and charm, which GEORGE, BEING GEORGE actually captures best by publishing a few of Plimpton's editorial memos, as well as remarks that he made at the 2001 alumni dinner for Exeter, his prep school. In these documents, Plimpton's amazing voice--graceful, intelligent, tasteful, and funny--is there, on the page. Surely, it is the sensibility animating this voice that made Plimpton a celebrity and a much beloved figure in literary New York.

Readers who want to experience this sensibility might purchase The Paris Review Anthology, which provides highlights from this literary magazine from 1953 to 1987. While Plimpton's written contributions to this anthology are limited to introductions, the authors he spotted and promoted are truly an A-list in American letters. In the section of this book headed 1981-1987, for example, the Paris Review published fiction from such authors as Bass, Boyle, Carver, Gass, McInerney, Minot, Rush, and Simpson. And, it published poems from Ashberry, Brodkey, Brodsky, Galassi, Heaney, and Hustvedt. To spot and/or promote these talents was clearly a great service to people who enjoy literature.

GEORGE, BEING GEORGE also establishes that the Paris Review, while a distinguished literary journal, was chronically short of money. But Plimpton kept the ship afloat through his charm, which helped him secure patrons, as well as generous cash infusions from his own bank account. Once again, thank you George.

At the same time, GEORGE, BEING GEORGE does look behind the Plimpton persona. In particular, it presents many comments from his two wives that show he was a sometimes difficult husband. Essentially, Plimpton lived large, making his living (and paying his heavy expenses) as a celebrity toastmaster. To play this part, Plimpton was always out and about, being George, what Philip Roth described in Exit Ghost (Vintage International) as an "urbane witty gentleman of easy intelligence and aristocratic bearing." This secured fame and a lush livelihood while keeping the Paris Review afloat. But apparently, George belonged to his public as much as to his wives. One contributor compares Plimpton, in the early years of his first marriage, to John Kennedy, who was not malicious but just did as he pleased. Both John and George were difficult mates.

GEORGE, BEING GEORGE is composed of hundreds of interlaced comments from 200 of Plimpton's associates, friends, and family members. Often, these comments focus on George, the celebrity, which was not especially interesting to me. Further, this dependence on comments has a reductive effect on Plimpton's literary achievements. Yes, this technique does convey the premise and project flow of his self-deprecatory sports journalism. But it excludes excerpts from his work. Surely, some excerpts would have added meat to this book, which does veer towards chatter.

Nonetheless, GEORGE, BEING GEORGE absolutely zooms along and can be read as a history of a 50-year literary era, with its subject the career and persona of one of that era's most prominent editors. Highly recommended.

For those who didn't catch his wave, George Plimpton was, for forty years, the celebratory firework of the New York arts scene. Born to New England blue bloods, flunked out of Exeter, graduated from Harvard, he co-founded the premiere literary journal, the Paris Review in 1953 and nourished it like a child for fifty years. Friend of Norman Mailer, pal of Andy Warhol, he is perhaps best known for living the dream that we all aspired to. He played football with the Detroit Lions and lived to write about it. He sparred with middle heavyweight champion Archie Moore...and lived to tell about it. He traveled to Zaire with Muhammad Ali, played tennis with Martina Navratilova, conducted Lenny Bernstein's New York Philharmonic, and orchestrated the Brooklyn Bridge centennial fireworks display, and wrote about it all. Being invited to Plimpton's legendary parties was a mark of having arrived on the New York literary scene--Zac ask your friend Elizabeth Wurtzel, she will confirm.

George, Being George is a curious form of biography. It consists of oral recollections collected from over 200 friends and acquaintances, nearly all accomplished writers or cultural icons. The editor, a literary lion himself, has plucked, trimmed and arranged them into a narrative. The subject himself used this artifice to capture the aura of Warhol's creation Edie Sedgwick, also Truman Capote. It is interesting and particularly effective to turn this artifice back on its progenitor. Perhaps that is because George Plimpton was such a great raconteur and entertainer. Whatever the reason, the literary device works. The book feels like the heady chit-chat that might have occurred at one of Plimpton's parties. You are there.

I learned two things. The Paris Review owes its founding to the CIA, though Plimpton did not know this for decades. In the years immediately following the War, Peter Matthiessen, another co-founder, was a CIA agent stationed in Paris. Matthiessen was assigned to keep tabs on communist inroads into the Paris intelligentsia, including US expatriates. What better cover than to pass as editor of a small start-up avant garde literary magazine? In addition to the editor, the money for the start-up came from the CIA via a foundation established to promote democratic principles in newly liberated Europe. Plimpton was an unwitting accomplice; he didn't learn the truth of the matter until Matthiessen told him, twenty years later. The truth put a brief strain on their relationship.

The other thing I learned is that one type of heart attack can be caused by a massive, uncontrolled rush of adrenalin. The adrenalin causes the heart to beat irregularly. If you are asleep or otherwise oblivious, you can die if you do not get the heart to return to regular rhythm. This is the most common mechanism for people who die in their sleep.

I wouldn't read this book unless I already knew and cared about George Plimpton. If you are interested, read "Paper Lion", which was made into a film and was a fantastic success in its day. Then read "The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair." Then read this book, to understand the man behind these wonderful creations.

I thought this book was a fun read. Plimpton was a very interesting man. I'm pretty sure I read one of his amateur-pro books about 20 years ago, probably Paper Lion.

It was interesting to see how connected he was to so many facets of New York society and to learn about his work at the Paris Review. The most captivating part of the book for me was hearing about how he could get along with pretty much anybody, was one of the best impromptu public speakers, and the way he had an unusual way to talk. I want to see him speak - I'm going to check out YouTube and see if I can find something.

The oral biography structure was a bit frustrating, because you want to get a flow going and the excerpts were too small to allow for it. But I think it was entertaining nonetheless and the ending had me in tears. Very touching. I would have loved to have known this man.

This book promised so much in that Plimpton lived in interesting times and places, and socialised, worked and lived with interesting people. But I found the book curiously disappointing partly because a lot of the entries / anecdotes / memoirs were very brief and often too admiring. Also, I suspect that it is because he was not a particularly interesting person, nor did he achieve anything of great creative interest himself.
Having said that, I did read the book almost non-stop, and laughed at some anecdotes and enjoyed the view of Plimpton's times.

George being George is one of those rare books that you want never to end. It is filled with witty anecdotes, about a man with a wide circle of friends of all kinds. One gets the feeling that was one of those rare, free spirited, genuinely nice sorts, that there are too few of. It also is a history of the times and places he went. He seems to have been generous to the end, and given his time to friends without strings. We also get a peak into the literary seen of the time.

Plimpton was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and proceeded to spit it out and make a fun, fascinating life out of friends, ideas and fireworks

Who cares? He had it handed to him on a platter. Where's the story when there is no struggle; where's the character? Everyone loved George. Great. Yawn. He waltzed through the golden gates without the slightest effort, yet he created nothing. Good for him that he had fun; good for him that he enjoyed his life. It just doesn't make for compelling reading, except, of course, for those involved. And that's exactly who this book is for. The rest of us? The lives of artists make for much much better reading.... If you knew and liked George Plimpton, you'll probably like this book.