Paul and Me: Fifty-three Years of Adventures and Misadventures with My Pal Paul Newman [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

A E Hotchner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 2010

Bestselling author A. E. Hotchner's intimate account of his 53-year friendship with his pal Paul Newman.

A. E. Hotchner first met Paul Newman in 1955 when the virtually unknown actor assumed the lead role in Hotchner’s first television play, based on an Ernest Hemingway story. The project elevated both men from relative obscurity to recognition and began a close and trusted friendship that lasted until Newman’s death in 2008.
 
In Paul and Me, Hotchner depicts a complicated, unpredictable, fun-loving, talented man, and takes the reader along on their adventures. The pair traveled extensively, skippered a succession of bizarre boats, confounded the business world, scored triumphs on the stage, and sustained their friendship through good times and bad.  Most notably, they started Newman’s Own as a prank and watched it morph into a major enterprise that so far has donated all its $300 million in profit to charities including the Hole in the Wall Camps worldwide, dedicated to helping thousands of children with life-threatening illnesses.
 
Paul and Me, complete with personal photographs, is the story of a freewheeling friendship and a tribute to the acclaimed actor who gave to the world as much as the world gave him.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Author and playwright Hotchner (Papa Hemingway) met Paul Newman in 1955, when the unknown actor took over for James Dean in Hotchner's first teleplay, beginning a friendship that lasted until the legendary actor's 2008 death. Chronicling that friendship, Hotchner presents a meandering collection of stories about their times and projects, including the successful business they started together. Vignettes feature the two fishing, traveling, and developing the Newman's Own brand, spreading the familiar news of Newman's nice-guy reputation, rigorous preparation for specific roles, penchant for practical jokes, philanthropic efforts, political involvement and disdain for rules. Though there's no question that the relationship between them ran deep-one passage finds Newman confiding his guilt over the drug-related death of his son, Scott-the author places himself in the middle of every story, resorts to frequent namedropping, and quotes extensively from private conversations that took place decades ago, giving the proceedings a queasy current of self-regard that could rub fans the wrong way.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The author and Newman met in 1955, when the actor was starring in a television play written by Hotchner. They became friends and remained buddies until Newman’s death in 2008. Hotchner probably could have written a traditional biography of Newman, but instead he’s chosen—rightly—to write about episodes from their friendship, to show us Paul Newman as seen by someone close to him. We all have an image of Newman: talented actor, philanthropist, race-car driver, nice guy. But how many of us know that Newman, until shooting started, thought he was playing Sundance in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; that he turned down roles in All That Jazz and Jaws; that he was an incorrigible practical joker? Hotchner introduces us to the Newman we probably don’t know, and he turns out to be a man we wish we could have called our friend. Beautifully written (you can tell Hotchner loved and admired his friend) and probably more revealing of the actor’s private side than any traditional biography could hope to be. --David Pitt

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 234 pages
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese; 1st edition (March 23, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385532334
• ISBN-13: 978-0385532334
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #481,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great tribute, April 4, 2010

By 

Grimbert (Mezieres, FRANCE) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paul and Me: Fifty-three Years of Adventures and Misadventures with My Pal Paul Newman (Hardcover)

I was dumbfounded to see that the people rating this book one or two stars have not read it ! They just criticized the price !
As for me, I enjoyed it tremendously. At last we have a book written by someone who actually knew Paul Newman. (What a change, compared to so-called "biographies" written by people who had never met him and who, too often, resorted to unsubstantiated tabloid stories to tarnish his reputation.)
Mr Hotchner has a great sense of humour and many anecdotes are very funny. I laughed a lot. But there are some moving moments, especially at the end and also when he tells us about a conversation about Scott (PN's son).
This is a revealing, intimate (but not too intimate) portrait of a kind and generous man. I don't understand the people who have criticized the author for "betraying" his friend's intimate thoughts. Nothing secret is revealed : concerning PN's guilt about his son, it was not a secret. But, when Scott died, the stories made up by the tabloids were awful, accusing PN of not giving a damn about his son. Here, the author shows us how much he cared for him. Relating this conversation was necessary because it does him justice.
Thank you for this lovely tribute. I just found it too short !

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, but very little on his movies., April 6, 2010

By 

Julie Rhodes "julie rhodes" (Bridgwater, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paul and Me: Fifty-three Years of Adventures and Misadventures with My Pal Paul Newman (Hardcover)

I am a huge fan of Paul Newman and was very excited when I heard this was being written. If you're looking for insight into his Hollywood life, then you may be a bit disappointed. (I was a little. Would have loved to hear about Paul's thoughts on his movies. The only reason it doesn't have five stars. I'm a HUGE fan of Newman's filmography.) This is mostly about Newman's Own and The Hole In the Wall Gang Camps. I found it fascinating. I learned so much about who Paul was as a person. Anyone who doesn't respect or admire how Paul lived his life outside of Hollywood must not understand just how rare a person like Paul Newman is.

Hotch has a great voice and there is a lot of humor. (The story about playing tennis with Newman and Redford was a favorite of mine.) He also captured some intimate moments in Paul's life (the death of his son, the start of the camps, Paul's illness, etc.) I was crying for the last fifteen-twenty pages when Hotch was talking about Paul's illness and how he had to miss events for his charities. It was hard to read, but I'm glad I did.

If you have even the smallest interest in Paul Newman: The Person, then I definitely recommend this book. Like I mentioned, it doesn't cover much of his time in Hollywood, but it's still worth the read.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars what did you think you were buying, March 30, 2010

By 

Tracy "Rufus James" (Renton) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paul and Me: Fifty-three Years of Adventures and Misadventures with My Pal Paul Newman (Kindle Edition)

review the book not the system. this is a refreshingly non hollywood look at a big part of hollywood.