George, Being George: George Plimpton's Life as Told, Admired, Deplored, and Envied by 200 Friends, Relatives, Lovers, Acquaintances, Rivals--and a Few Unappreciative ... | 
 enlarge | Creator: Nelson W. Aldrich
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 44120
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 1400063981
Dewey Decimal Number: 818.54
EAN: 9781400063987
ASIN: 1400063981
Publication Date: October 21, 2008
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Product Description
Norman Mailer said that George Plimpton was the best-loved man in New York. For more than fifty years, his friends made a circle whose circumference was vast and whose center was a fashionable tenement on New York’s East Seventy-second street. Taxi drivers, hearing his address, would ask, “Isn’t that George Plimpton’s place?” George was always giving parties for his friends. It was one of the ways this generous man gave back.
This book is the party that was George’s life–and it’s a big one–attended by scores of people, including Peter Matthiessen, Robert Silvers, Jean Stein, William Styron, Maggie Paley, Gay Talese, Calvin Trillin, and Gore Vidal, as well as lesser-known intimates and acquaintances, each with candid and compelling stories to tell about George Plimpton and childhood rebellion, adult indiscretions, literary tastes, ego trips, loyalties and jealousies, riches and drugs, and embracing life no matter the consequences.
In George, Being George people feel free to say what guests say at parties when the subject of the conversation isn’t around anymore. Some even prove the adage that no best-loved man goes unpunished. Together, they provide a complete portrait of George Plimpton. They talk about his life: its privileged beginnings, its wild and triumphant middle, its brave, sad end. They say that George was a man of many parts: “the last gentleman”; founder and first editor of one of our best literary magazines, The Paris Review; the graceful writer who brought the New Journalism to sports in bestsellers such as Paper Lion, Bogey Man, and Out of My League; and Everyman’s proxy boxer, trapeze artist, stand-up comic, Western movie villain, and Playboy centerfold photographer. And one of the brave men who wrestled Sirhan Sirhan, the armed assassin of his friend Bobby Kennedy, to the ground.
A Plimpton party was full of intelligent, funny, articulate people. So is this one. Many try hard to understand George, and some (not always the ones you would expect) are brilliant at it. Here is social life as it’s actually lived by New York’s elites. The only important difference between a party at George’s and this book is that no one here is drunk. They just talk about being drunk.
George’s last years were awesome, truly so. His greatest gift was to be a blessing to others–not all, sadly–and that gift ended only with his death. But his parties, if this is one, need never end at all.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Good book January 2, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
 Engrossing Chatter about a Charming Man December 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
 Curiously George December 21, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
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 Plimpton, A LIFE!!!! December 16, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
One who knew and appreciated the "great enthusiasms, the great devotions" November 28, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
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."
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