Table of Contents
Part I 1
1 Meeting God 2
2 Sex with Amelia 11
3 Confessional Jitters 15
4 Butterflies and Smoking Machos 20
5 Jews and WASPs 24
Part II 27
6 Self-Pity 28
7 Duking It Out with Windmills 33
8 Troopship 37
9 Waltzing in the Alps 40
10 George Plimpton 45
11 General Jitters 51
Part III 55
12 Steeplejack 56
13 Cool Kate 60
14 Cooler Mother-in-Law 66
15 Quarterback No More 68
16 G-Man versus Army Officer 75
Part IV 77
17 Introduction to J. Edgar 78
18 Through the Looking Glass 84
19 Underwater at "Acapuico" 92
20 Close Call 95
21 Chicago Nights with Cementhead 102
Part V 109
22 Big Leagues 110
23 Riptide 116
24 Newlyweds 122
25 Unarmed in Harlem 127
26 The Tragedy of Julius and Ethel 131
27 Disorganized Crime 136
Part VI 141
28 Coast Guard Rescue 142
29 Payne Whitney Yacht 148
30 DeWitt and Lila Wallace of Readers Digest 151
31 High Winds to Hillsdale 154
Part VII 159
32 Wrath of the Righteous 160
33 Scribner's Acceptance and Rejection 163
34 Publication and Reaction 167
35 Today Show 178
36 Minor League Football 184
37 Al Capp Cabal 187
38 Hoover's Reaction 195
39 Writing Ethics 199
Part VIII 205
40 Saving The Paris Review 206
41 Shoot-Out at The Paris Review 216
42 The Hampton Sisters 225
43 "Delectation and Delight" with Donald Fine 234
44 Boldfaced Names 247
Part IX 251
45 In Xanadu a Parvenu 252
46 Fireworks with Plimpton 260
47 Self-Publishing versus the Orphanag 264
48 Slighted in Southampton 267
Part X 271
49 Social Climbing 272
50 British American Entertainment 278
51 The Honeymooners 287
52 The Hermeneutic Principle 292
53 Kate as Prison Guard 296
54 Death of George 299
55 Requiem for a Writer 307
Acknowledgments 317
About the Author 318
Index 319
