George Plimpton

(1927 - 2003)

Cofounder of The Paris Review, George Plimpton once fought in a bullfight staged by Ernest Hemingway, who described Plimpton’s acts of participatory journalism as “the dark side of the moon of Walter Mitty,” and also wrote about his experiences as a quarterback for the Detroit Lions in 1963 and a goalie for the Boston Bruins in 1977. Hunter S. Thompson memorialized him as “an aristocrat of the spirit” who “lived his life like a work of fine art.” Plimpton helped launch the careers of Adrienne Rich, Philip Roth, and V.S. Naipaul, among others. He died in New York City at the age of seventy-six in 2003.