A Life of Privilege, Mostly [Hardcover]

Gardner Botsford (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312303432 | ISBN-13: 978-0312303433 | Publication Date: January 17, 2003 | Edition: First Edition

Gardner Botsford tells the fascinating and humorous story of his W.W. II experiences, from his assignment to the infantry due to a paperwork error to a fearful trans-Atlantic crossing on the Queen Mary, to landing under heavy fire on Omaha Beach and the Liberation of Paris. After the war, he began a distinguished literary career as a long-time editor at the New Yorker, and chronicles the magazine’s rise and influence on postwar American culture with wit and grace.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Botsford, a former New Yorker editor, pulls off a difficult balancing act in this graceful memoir. He covers brutal WWII experiences in highly charged, reportorial detail, then switches effortlessly to his wealthy, No‰l Coward-flavored background. Beginning with his soldier days, he backtracks to his years at Yale and colorfully portrays his mother, Neysa McMein, a celebrated beauty and international heartbreaker who attracted such friends as Alexander Woolcott and George Abbott. Botsford's writing ability first surfaced with a humor column he wrote in college, and he began at the New Yorker as an underpaid contributor. The book, always compelling, becomes impossible to put down when he focuses on the legendary William Shawn. He describes the editor as "a hermetically sealed intellectual" and points out why the two formed a friendly but consistently uneasy alliance: Shawn "tiptoed through life as though through a minefield.... I was forever getting into fights, arguing with cab drivers.... I was wildly irrational." Despite Botsford's ambivalent feelings about his colleague, he tells the story of Tom Wolfe's scathing Shawn expos‚ in the New York Herald Tribune with unbiased clarity, making readers feel Shawn's despair at being publicly unmasked. The last section, in which Shawn fights against appointing a successor until Si Newhouse fires him, is a chilling demonstration of how desperately people cling to power. Beyond Botsford's precisely drawn, touching closeups of such authors as Maeve Brennan and A.J. Liebling, he makes readers understand an editor's life and responsibilities. His editorial rules of thumb provide enlightening material for readers and writers alike. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The New Yorker

The "privilege" in the title of Botsford's gruffly stylish memoir is his upbringing as the son of a Midwestern heiress; "mostly" is his dry way of alluding to the Second World War. He served in the First Infantry Division (which lost more than twenty thousand men) and saw action at Omaha Beach and the Battle of the Bulge. Though he was "damn near killed," he finished the war a heavily decorated captain. Among the many miraculous coincidences of war—a bullet dodged, an old friend randomly encountered—Botsford had the good fortune to meet A. J. Liebling at the front. This came in handy when, after the war, Botsford became an editor—and, eventually, Liebling's editor—at The New Yorker: "Although it was an article of faith with him that all editors were incompetent losers, he must have decided to be nice to me as a gesture to the First Division."
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (January 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312303432
• ISBN-13: 978-0312303433
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,558,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Funny names belong to the past" - Wolcott Gibbs (p.177), January 26, 2003

By 

S. A. Cartwright "Stu Cartwright" (Wayland, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Life of Privilege, Mostly (Hardcover)

As the split screen cover photos suggest, Gardner Botsford (`is this a real name?' asks my wife) chronicles two sides of his extraordinary life. First, "the feel of fear" as an infantryman entering World War II at Omaha Beach on D-Day and his surviving countless adventures as the Allies drive to Berlin. Liberation of Paris, the surrender of an entire town to him personally, meeting Patton...one begins to think he is an erudite Forrest Gump - he is simply everywhere at the important moment. Second, his colorful career in journalism, from covering death-row executions in Florida as a young beat reporter through his long career at the center of the literary world as editor of The New Yorker.

"`Before I blow out your brains' - what a way to talk! What melodrama! What had happened to me?" As a GI, Botsford wrestles in Europe with the demons of war...perhaps solid preparation for future traumas he would witness at home in New York. Booze, mental depression and suicide were to elite wordsmiths what heroin became to jazz musicians, and Botsford's life is touched repeatedly by the loss of his colleagues.

One expects chapters upon chapter of WASPy high society lifestyles, but Botsford indulges the reader only with a taste of his pre-war jaunts through Hotchkiss, Yale and the Ubangi Club. Neysa McMein, famous socialite and illustrator, (but not Botsford's mother as indicated in the PW review posted here) is featured: a fellow native of Quincy, Illinois, Neysa introduces the author's parents to New York. Alexander Wolcott, Genet (Janet Flanner), Wolcott Gibbs, AJ Leibling, and scores of famous New Yorker writers and editors are recounted. Naturally, Ross and Shawn, the great legends of the magazine serve as bookends to the Botsford career. But you don't have to be a great student of The New Yorker to appreciate this memoir.

Maeve Brennan's insouciant letter detailing a Christmas in the Hamptons ("It will be a long day before I have `house guests' again.") is a scream, and worth the price of the book alone. You'll also enjoy Wolcott Gibbs' 10 general rules for editing New Yorker writers. Equally amusing is Gibbs' editorial answer to a book publisher in Chicago with six accompanying notes ("#4. `For it was apple-blossom time in Normandy' is, I'm afraid, arch at best, and the ragtime beat is not appealing to the ear.")

Mr. Botsford's keen sense of humor echoes throughout the memoir. He constantly watches for those taking themselves too seriously, and finds a treasure trove of these unfortunates in the US Army, in American politics, and in the editorial corridors of New York City. Even his best friend before the war, Bill Verity, (aka, Monsieur Calvini) does not escape his wit...alas "he took up the corporate ladder, became more stone-minded, was appointed as Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Commerce - he was lost forever." Those who are too officious find little room in the privileged life of Gardner Botsford. Thank you, Robert, this was a treat.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A LIFE OF PRIVILEGE IS A PRIVILEGE TO READ, July 1, 2003

By 

"aatransport13" (The Berkshires in Massachusettes) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Life of Privilege, Mostly (Hardcover)

This glimpse into the life of a gentleman is riveting. Mr. Botsford relinquishes a life to the reader of a time gone by, when a gentleman was something people aspired to be. From true gentility to personal heroism and adventure during the war, each page brings you deeper into the life of a fascinating man. This is the kind of tale that people used to sit around a cozy fire to share, when television was science fiction and storytelling was not a lost art. Mr. Botsford makes you nostalgic for that kind of entertainment, and glad that you can still find it if you know where to look. So turn off the TV and pick up "A Life of Privilege, Mostly", you'll be glad you did!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It will leave you weak with laughter, January 31, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: A Life of Privilege, Mostly (Hardcover)

The two photographs on the cover of Gardner Botsford's extraordinary memoir explain the "Mostly" in the title: While the book gives a funny, detailed description of life in the top tier of New York society, it also takes the reader into the not-so-funny life of a young soldier who fought in the bloodiest battles of World War II. The war parts are without self-pity. The privilege parts are similarly cheerful and accepting. The author, a former top editor at the New Yorker Magazine, also gives a backstage view of some of the power struggles he witnessed there. And some of his delicious anecdotes about famous New Yorker writers leave the reader weak with laughter. This is a book to relish and buy many copies of for all your friends and relatives.