Gardner Botsford (1917–2004)

Enthralling writing (the most vivid depictions of D-Day from a soldier's point of view that I've read) later turns into utterly engaging writing about his privileged youth as the son of an NYC beauty who married rich more than once. Then a section on his "adult" life and career at the New Yorker. Before he gets there, he explains how he learned to write so well. A gifted yet humble man; I understand that, with the publication of his memoirs, his exciting life was a complete surprise to his acquaintances.… (altro)

I was drawn to this book after reading Roger Angell's witty memoir, LET ME FINISH. Botsford's book doesn't quite measure up to Angell's, but that's mostly because, unlike Angell, his stepfather wasn't E.B. White. But he did have a couple of other stepfathers, one of which was Raoul Fleischman (of the yeast fortune). While Botsford grew up very well-to-do, by the age of 11 he was shunted off to boarding schools and camps. He attended Hotchkiss prep and then Yale, where he was on a pretty tight budget, considering the family fortune. The best parts of this memoir are his stories from the military, as a young infantry lieutenant who survived Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. The later anecdotes about his life at The New Yorker are a little less interesting, with stories about a drunken Jean Stafford and a temperamental A.J. Liebling. Central to Botsford's tale is his long-time relationship to the magazine's managing editor, William Shawn, which ended, sadly, not on the best of terms. Botsford died in 2004, the year after A LIFE OF PRIVILEGE, MOSTLY was published. If you are a reader of The New Yorker (I am), you will like this often overlooked memoir. (I did.)… (altro)