GEORGE PLIMPTON Biography - Writers

 
 

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GEORGE PLIMPTON

Name: George Ames Plimpton                                                             
Born March 18, 1927                                                                     
Died September 25, 2003                                                                 
                                                                                       
George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American             
journalist, writer, editor, and actor.                                                 
                                                                                       
Plimpton was born in New York. He attended St. Bernard's School, Phillips Exeter       
Academy, and Daytona Beach High School, where he received his High School               
diploma  before entering Harvard University in July 1944. He wrote for the             
Harvard Lampoon, was a member of the Hasty Pudding-Institute of 1770, Pi Eta and       
Phoenix-S.K. His field of concentration was English. While Plimpton considered         
himself part of the Class of 1948, he actually graduated from Harvard in 1950           
due to intervening military service. He was also an accomplished birdwatcher.           
                                                                                       
Plimpton was first married to Freddy Medora Espy, a photographer's assistant,           
from 1968 to 1988. They had two children: Medora Ames and Taylor Ames. In 1991         
he married Sarah Whitehead Dudley, with whom he had twin girls, Laura and Olivia.       
                                                                                       
In 1953, Plimpton joined the influential literary journal The Paris Review,             
founded by Peter Matthiessen, Thomas H. Guinzburg, and Harold L. Humes, becoming       
its first editor in chief. This periodical carries great weight in the literary         
world, but has never been financially strong; for its first half-century, it was       
largely financed by its publishers and by Plimpton. Poet laureate Donald Hall,         
who had met Plimpton at Exeter was Poetry Editor. One of the magazine's most           
notable discoveries was author Terry Southern, who was living in Paris at the           
time and formed a lifelong friendship with Plimpton.