Writers at Work: Volume 3

Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews #3

by George Plimpton (Editor), Alfred Kazin (Introduction)

Paris Review 3nd Series is the third of collected literary interviews published by The Paris Review (1967), edited by George Plimpton, and includes an introduction by Alfred Kazin.

Interviews: Jean Cocteau, Blaise Cendrars, Arthur Miller, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, William Carlos Williams, Saul Bellow, Evelyn Waugh, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, William Burroughs, Harold Pinter, Lillian Hellman, Edward Albee, James Jones

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

George Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, actor, and gamesman. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.

He was the grandson of George A. Plimpton.

Reviews

[Gabriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the collection that includes the William S. Burroughs interview-- that interview alone is worth the admission price (and is why I give this 4 stars). And, as a soupcon, you get interviews with Blaise Cendrars and Celine as well. Dashiell Hammett pops up a few times in the Lillian Hellman interview, and she talks about appropriation a tiny bit (with regards to Hammett). A worthy collection of interviews, if something of an odd selection of writers.

[Adam McPhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting interviews with Allen Ginsberg, Evelyn Waugh, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, William Burroughs & Lillian Hellman.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you ever find this, or any other of the Paris Review Interviews collections from the 1960s at a used bookshop, buy it!

While some of the interviews were a bit disappointing (either too short or too smart/philosophical for me), a few of these were surprisingly awesome. Both Ginsberg and Burroughs were able to explain their work in illuminating ways. They have some ideas about the universe that blew my mind. I also loved Arthur Miller, who was a farmer/scholar in Connecticut at the time of the interview.

This collection features William Carlos Williams; Blaise Cendrars; Jean Cocteau; Louis-Ferdinand Celine; Evelyn Waugh; Lillian Hellman; William Burroughs; Saul Bellow; Arthur Miller; James Jones; Norman Mailer; Allen Ginsberg; Edward Albee; and, Harold Pinter.

[Dat-Dangk Vemucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best interviews:

William Carlos Williams - Admirably poised despite mounting infirmity, with a charming insight into his personal relationships in town life and in his marriage

Louis-Ferdinand Celine - Amazingly speaks in the same clipped, wholly 'objective' manner of his prose. Interview demonstrates both his volatility and precision in equal measure

Lillian Hellman - Refined mastery over laconic, subtle and self-effacing humor

William Burroughs - Always a brilliant interview subject, and this is one of the best. His methods, thought process and ideological/philosophical outlook are inextricable from one another

James Jones - Unfamiliar with his work but will seek it out having read this insightful and clearheaded interview, full of wit and reverence

Worst interviews:

Arthur Miller - A boring air of wealthy self-assurance that tips over into smug self-importance

Allen Ginsberg - Completely insufferable. Horrendous vibes, the worst kind of theater kid who won't shut up about his sex life and his interminable LSD 'revelations'. This is by far the worst interview in the book, with Ginsberg rambling over the interviewer for pages at a time. The only good thing about it is how terse and obviously annoyed with him the interviewer becomes by the end. Credit to him for resisting the urge to give this dweeb a wedgie. hell is a place on earth, and it's being trapped in a new york apartment listening to a coked up Allen Ginsebrg ramble about his masturbation habits

[Michael Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The great interview series. This one had a few more clinkers than usual. Blaise Cendrars? But still some good stuff.

There is always a good amount of bloviating in these interviews. Jean Cocteau, the classic French intellectual, says; "I long said art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious. Latterly, I have begun to think: is genius an at-present undiscovered form of the memory?" I will answer, yes and no.

Evelyn Waugh, who liked to be difficult, cites Earl Stanley Gardner, who pumped out the Perry Mason books, as one of his favorite writers but when asked about Raymond Chandler says, "No, I'm bored by all those slugs of whiskey. I don't care for all the violence either."

In the 1950s William Burroughs had a character named "The Heavy Metal Kid". He was one of the sources of the name for the music. Burroughs explained where he got the name. "I felt that heavy metal was sort of the ultimate expression of addiction., that there's something actually metallic in addiction, that the final stage reached is not so much vegetable as metallic. It's increasingly inanimate in any case."

Norman Mailer, the most insecure, jealous major American writer; "MAILER: Faulkner said more asinine things than any major American writer. I can't remember a single interesting remark Faulkner ever made. INTERVIEWER: He once called Henry James "a nice old lady". MAILER: Faulkner had a mean small Southern streak in him and most of his pronouncements reflect that streak. He was a great writer, but not at all interesting in most of his passing remarks."

Edward Albee explains when he knows it is time to start writing a play he has been thinking about; "There's a time to go to the typewriter. It's like a dog: the way a dog before it craps wanders around in circles- a piece of earth, an area of grass, circles it for a long time before it squats."

[Molebatsi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Writers at Work for the takeaways from great writers. These will be writers who made a great impression on me, and return to them regularly.

Except for odds and ends from Saul Bellow, Arthur Miller, and Norman Mailer, there wasn't much for me in the Third Series.

This is not the end of the Third Series for me though. After going through familiar figures, I will return to immerse myself in my unknowns for their influences and writing habits. When I am done with the series, I should be a writing guru of some sort from harvesting the writing habits of great and not-so-great writers.