Interview by Cheryl Kravetz
George Plimpton has played quarterback for the Detroit Lions, basketball for the Boston Celtics, hockey for the Boston Bruins, percussion with the New York Philharmonic, photographed beautiful models for Playboy, flown through the air on a trapeze for the Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus, was a stand-up comic at Caesar’s Palace, Boxed against Archie Moore and started the first match at the Wellington Polo and Country Club. Plimpton is also a talented writer with many books and magazine articles to his credit.
Plimpton visited BookFest of the Palm Beaches recently where he spoke about his 1997 book, "Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career.
"It’s a book that everybody should read," Plimpton said. "It’s a biography about one of the more interesting southern writers. Everybody always remembers him. He was very short. Norman Mailer used to describe him as sort of a sawed-off shotgun of a man. He said insulting things and wrote wonderful prose."
Plimpton personally knew Capote but he said he learned a lot about him while doing research for his book.
"I learned he had a compassionate side that I did not know about," he said. "I learned a lot about the writing of in Cold Blood’ and I learned about some of his friends. I think when you do any biography you learn things you didn’t know before."
Capote and Plimpton lived near each other in Long Island and they frequently socialized together. Plimpton said he doesn’t know what the future holds for him, but he looks forward to it, whatever it is.
"Every once in a while someone calls up and they want me to appear," he said. "I always say yes and I never know what’s going to become of it. I never knew ‘Good Will Hunting’ was going to become such a huge success.
A native of New York City, George Plimpton has degrees from Harvard University and King’s College, Cambridge University. He founded The Paris Review in 1953, a literary quarterly of which he is still editor. He has taught at Barnard College, has been associate editor at both Harper’s Magazine and Horizon Magazine and is a special contributor to Sports Illustrated.
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Last modified Wednesday, 15-Jun-2005 05:59:39 EDT