The Best American Sports Writing 1996 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 039570071X ISBN 13: 9780395700716

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1996

Synopsis

Now in its sixth year and well established as the premier sports anthology, The Best American Sports Writing brings together the finest sportswriting of the past year with America's best-selling sportswriter in the guest editor's seat. Selected from more than 350 American and Canadian newspapers and magazines, the 1996 collection promises to live up to the standards set by the five popular previous volumes. This year's anthology features a wide variety of sports and sports figures - a hilarious expose of what really goes on at the Dallas Cowboys spring training camp, the sad story of heavyweight boxer Jerry Quarry and his losing battle with pugilistica dementia, a revealing portrait of "wild thing" Dennis Rodman, and an investigation of the incidence of violence committed by athletes against women. Sure to delight both the die-hard sports fan and the general reader alike, these thirty pieces capture the world of sport in all its majesty, humanity, and color.

About this title

Review:

With a solid, self-assured, reliable veteran such as Dick Schaap compiling the lineup, the millennial edition of sports writing's best was bound to be a success, and it also includes a few surprises. You want baseball? Here's Robert Huber's stunning profile of Joe DiMaggio--no, not that Joe DiMaggio, but the troubled son saddled with the same name, but gifted with none of the talent. You want football? Here's former NFL defensive end Pat Toomay's deliciously jaundiced chronicle of working on Oliver Stone's football movie Any Given Sunday. You want eclectic? How about Mark Levine's profile of Tony Hawk, skateboarding's acknowledged grand master; Jeanne Marie Laskas on bull riding; Burkhard Bilger on cockfighting; and Bryan Burrough's harrowing account of the storm that wreaked havoc on the 54th Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race? They all widen the playing field that defines sports and sports writing. Now add to that selections from David Halberstam, Rick Telander, Craig Vetter, and Garrison Keillor, and the annual collection of The Best American Sports Writing finds itself once again leading the league. --Jeff Silverman

About the Author:

GLENN STOUT is a freelance writer, author, and editorial consultant and has served as Series Editor of The Best American Sports Writing since its inception. He is the author of Young Woman and the Sea and Fenway 1912, and has collaborated with Richard Johnson on Red Sox Century, Yankees Century, The Cubs and The Dodgers. Stout has lived in and around Boston for 20 years. Currently he lives in Vermont. 
 

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 039570071X
• ISBN 13: 9780395700716
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 6
• Number of pages: 356
• Editor: John Feinstein