Beyond the Boys of Summer

by Roger Kahn

Spanning half a century, the first comprehensive anthology of the great Roger Kahn's writing, for a new generation of sports fans Roger Kahn, author of 19 books including the modern classic The Boys of Summer , is arguably America's greatest sportswriter. Now, for the first time, Beyond the Boys of Summer presents a showcase of 50 years worth of Kahn's celebrated work. From a 1955 article on the incomparable Jackie Robinson to excerpts from his recent bestselling book on the controversial '78 Yankees, this unprecedented anthology spans an entire career to show off the grace, wit, and elegance of Roger Kahn's most memorable writing on sports, as well as his reporting beyond the world of baseball diamonds and boxing rings. Uniquely organized around life's stages, the book brings readers face to face with some of the greatest names in sport, including Muhammad Ali, Jack Dempsey, Reggie Jackson, and Pete Rose. Through Kahn's fly-on-the-wall style, readers will see Duke Snider in the avocado fields of California, Mickey Mantle in Texas taverns, and Joe DiMaggio watching his famous wife, Marilyn Monroe, flirt for the movie cameras. In the final segment, Kahn meets the 80-year-old poet Robert Frost, mourns the deaths of friends and heroes, and movingly writes about how sports stars--and even sportswriters--grow old, looking back on a long life well lived.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 31, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Roger Kahn was best known for The Boys of Summer, about the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Reviews

[Dave Moyer]

Enjoyable to get one more from Kahn. Brought back great memories.

[Cindy Regan]

More love for Dem Bums.

[F.C. Etier]

Excerpt:
A well selected variety of Kahn’s writing is on display here including more than 30 works previously published in Playboy, (the now defunct) Sport, Time, Newsweek, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and many others. In spite of all the accolades from noteworthy sources for his writings about baseball (his favorite players were PeeWee Reese and Jackie Robinson), included here are some significant pieces on Muhammed Ali, Lew Alcindor, campus unrest, and perhaps, my favorite, an essay on retirement. “Past Their Prime” appeared in Playboy and won an award for the best magazine article of 1979. Kahn writes with confidence and an air of authority that can only come with experience and thorough research.

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/books/article/...

[Matt Moran]

Solid anthology.

The Steinbrenner essay was the best in this collection.