George Plimpton

George Ames Plimpton (* March 18, 1927, † 25 September 2003 in New York ) was an American writer and above all, a promoter of young writers.

Life

George was the oldest of four children of parents Francis T. Plimpton and Pauline Ames Plimpton. He had two brothers and a sister. He went to New Hampshire on the Phillips Exeter Academy and wrote for the school newspaper. After finishing school in 1944 he went to Harvard, studied English there and worked part-time for the Harvard Lampoon.

From 1945 to 1948 he served in the United States Army, including some time as a tank driver in Italy. He was promoted to lieutenant in the army. After leaving the army, he studied at King 's College, Cambridge, where he made further in 1952 with a BA and two years later the M. A.

After visiting Paris in 1952, he discussed there with some friends, including Peter Matthiessen, establishing a literary magazine that was founded in 1953 realized as Paris Review and its ( voluntary ) chief editor Plimpton was. He retained this activity to the last.

From 1956 to 1958 he was a teacher at Barnard College and 1959 boxed sports enthusiast Plimpton with the former light heavyweight champion Archie Moore.

In the documentary When We Were Kings - Once we were kings ( Director: Leon Gast, 1997 Oscar for best documentary ) commented Plimpton with Norman Mailer the historic Rumble in the Jungle boxing match (English: "The fight in the Jungle" ), between then- heavyweight champion George Foreman and former world champion Muhammad Ali, which took place in Kinshasa on 30 October 1974.

Plimpton died at age 76 in New York.

Works

• Paper Lion ( 1966)
• Out of My League
• Truman Capote
• Bogey Man
• Shadow Box