Exemplars, VI

George Ames Plimpton (1927-2003). Exeter. Harvard. Writer. Editor. Actor.

I didn’t know him well at all, but I loved being in George Plimpton’s company. He seemed to embody the best aspects of the tradition: self-deprecating humor; boundless enthusiasm for every variety of human experience; leadership worn very lightly; a capacity for enormously hard work; and a grinning appreciation of life’s tragedies. As Philip Roth wrote, “When people say to themselves ‘I want to be happy,’ they could as well be saying ‘I want to be George Plimpton.’” ~ Tad Friend, quoted in The New Yorker, September 29, 2009.

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