The Red Sox Reader

by Dan Riley

All the history, heartbreak, humor, and high tension of the Red Sox is captured in this expanded edition, which includes a selection from The Curse of the Bambino by Dan Shaughnessy and a piece by David Halberstam. Sure to delight the fans.

Genres: Sports, Baseball, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1987

About the author

Dan Riley has been writing seriously ever since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 focused his boyish attention on his mortality. Since then, he's edited his school, college and local underground newspapers; written obituaries for the oldest newspaper in continuous publication in the US; and produced ad copy and corporate boilerplate. His five books published with Houghton Mifflin include The Red Sox Reader and The Dan Riley School for Girl: An Adventure in Home Schooling. And his play, Spinelli, was a winner of The Long Beach Playhouse's New Works Competition. His weekly blog, The Nobby Works, is dedicated to keeping the writing of Norman O. Brown linked to the times. He's happy to have lived long enough to see the launch of his first novel, The Virgin Missile Crisis.

Reviews

[David Bray]

An excellent collection of classic columns and essays compiled after the heartbreak of 1986, including David Halberstam, Peter Gammons, Charlie Pierce, Ray Fitzgerald, Stephen King, John Updike, and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

[Fred Daly]

There are some terrific essays here, notably the Updike piece on Ted Williams' last game and two by Roger Angell. But others are just annoying as they try to say something profound about the team's penchant for spectacular failure. But I have to admit, these are exactly the sorts of things I might have written once upon a time.

[Carl]

This collection is dead-on with great writing (and this topic, selections like Updike's "Hub Bids Kid Adieu" and all of those other great writers, on top of Cheever's thesis that all literary men are Red Sox fans, how can it go wrong?). Emily Vermeule's "mythic" article is an underappreciated gem, even though it's somewhat dated after 2004.

[Mark]

As a diehard Boston RED SOX fan this is a great book....writings from a variety of sources....so you get a wide range take on the SOX....GO SOX!!!!