Remembering the Pitch That Killed a Major League Ballplayer

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Sowell front coverSowell back coverThe Pitch That Killed: The Story of Carl Mays, Ray Chapman, and the Pennant Race of 1920 is one of the best baseball books I’ve ever read, or been involved with publishing. It chronicles the only fatality ever caused by injury during a baseball game. Ray Chapman was a great Cleveland Indians shortstop who died after struck in the head by a pitch thrown by NY Yankee Carl Mays. The tragedy occurred in the same season that the Tribe won their first World Series, somehow overcoming the loss of one of their best players. I’m glad that Cleveland Plain Dealer sports writer Bill Livingston, @LivyPD, chose to write about it today, the Sunday before Opening Day. Livingston reports that a film based on the book, “Deadball,” may be in the works.The Pitch That Killed is still in print today, in an edition from Ivan R. Dee, independent publisher in Chicago.

Macmillan, where I worked in the late 1980s, was a hotbed of excellent baseball publishing, anchored by The Baseball Encyclopedia. Titles I was responsible for included Two Spectacular Seasons: 1930–The Year the Hitters Ran Wil and 1968: The Year the Pitchers Took Revenge by William B. Mead and the Twentieth Anniversary edition of Jim Bouton’s classic Ball Four, an edition that’s still widely available today, including from Powell’s Books, the affiliate bookseller for this site. Colleague and friend Rick Wolff, who edited The Pitch That Killed and The Baseball Encyclopedia also worked on You Gotta Have Wa: When Two Cultures Collide on the Baseball Diamond, Robert Whiting’s enlightening examination of baseball in Japan. As baseball season begins, it’s fun to celebrate some great baseball books.

Read more

#FridayReads, March 29–‘Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science’

/1 Comment/in , /by

Saturday update–


—
Heretics#FridayReads, March 29—The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science by British journalist Will Storr. I posted this book as a #FridayReads March 8, so it should be clear it is not a quick read. However, it should also be clear that I’ve stayed with it because reading it is a very rewarding experience. Storr’s investigation blends spot reporting from such locales as a revival meeting in Australia led by a creationist preacher with consideration of the placebo theory and homeopathy and its detractors. Like Jon Ronson, another British author with whom I’ve compared Storr, the author of this book is an affable guide who successfully inveigles his way on to a tour bus of Holocaust deniers led by disgraced former historian David Irving and in to a conversation with the churlish defender of Hitler. I’m reading the last 40 pages now where Storr probes the question of whether James Randi deserves the status he’s widely accorded as the ‘world’s most noble skeptic.’ Storr, shall we say, has some doubts. I recommend this thoughtful and nuanced book most highly. I first read about this book in the Guardian last January and I’m glad I was able to get a copy from Picador, Storr’s obliging UK publisher.

Please note: you may visit a ‘buy page’ for this book at the website of Powell’s Books–the affiliate bookseller for The Great Gray Bridge–by clicking on this book link: The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science.

Read more

#FridayReads, March 22–“Things Fall Apart,” Chinua Achebe

/0 Comments/in /by

#FridayReads, March 22–Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, who died Thursday at age 82. I read the book in college, the very copy shown here. It’s a classic, richly deserving of its status. Things Fall Apart backThings Fall Apart front cover

Read more

Open Culture–Great Site for Free Film Noir

/2 Comments/in , /by

One of my favorite films is “Out of the Past,” the 1947 classic with Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, and Rhonda Fleming. I’ve watched it many times, and enjoy it so much that when I re-view it now the scenes seem to unfold like movements in a symphony. Because I love it do much, I’m always on the lookout for other noir-ish standouts. If you don’t know “Out of the Past,” please see the visuals below, the box on my old VHS copy of the movie, and the jacket of the pseudonymous Geoffrey Homes’ book, Build My Gallows High, which he adapted in to the screenplay, under his real name Daniel Mainwaring. Given my fondness for film noir, and crime and detective fiction, I was recently delighted to discover that OpenCulture.com, which describes itself as “The best free cultural and educational media on the web,” has assembled a site with access and links to 475 movies, many noir flicks, all free of charge to watch.

As indicated in the tweet above, Kyle and I saw a good one last night, chosen almost at random from among Open Culture’s offerings. Set in San Francisco, Brian Donlevy plays a husband who survives a murderous attack on him by his adulterous wife’s lover. Minutes later, the attacker is himself killed, and Donlevy, who had first been assumed dead, later surfaces alive, only to be accused of murder. It’s filled with surprises and twists, and excellent performances–from the avuncular Charles Coburn as a police detective with an Irish brogue and Ella Raines, a beauty we had never seen on screen before, as Donlevy’s love interest, counterpoint to his vindictive wife. The sound and picture quality were excellent. It’s clear we’re going to be working our way through Open Culture’s vast collection.
* If, like me, you’re big fan of Robert Mitchum, I must also recommend Lee Server’s galvanic biography, Robert Mitchum: “Baby, I Don’t Care” (the subtitle is a line from “Out of the Past”).
Out of the PastOut of the Past back coverBuild My Gallows High

Read more

#FridayReads, March 15–“The Big Book of Daring Swashbucklers” edited by Lawrence Ellsworth

/3 Comments/in , /by

#FridayReads, March 15–The Big Book of Daring Swashbucklers an anthology assembled by writer Lawrence Ellsworth. Delightedly making my way through this terrific manuscript which I’m going to soon be presenting to publishers. It’s a spirited anthology of historical and adventure fiction that features generous selections from the work of such writers as Rafael Sabatini (best known for Scaramouche), Anthony Hope (of Prisoner of Zenda renown, Johnston McCulley (creator of Zorro), Conan Doyle (he favored his adventure yarns more than Sherlock Holmes), Pierce Egan (known for Robin Hood), Alexandre Dumas (there’s so much more than the Three Musketeers), and Baroness Orczy (creator of the Scarlet Pimpernel)–in all a total of 20 writers from what could be fairly be called the golden age of adventure fiction.

Evidence of continuing interest in the genre? Tom Reiss’s recent book Black Count: Glory, Reovlution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, on Alexandre Dumas’ father, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle annual award in biography. Here’s Reiss’s website, where you can learn more about his book. He read brilliantly at the NBCC awards a few weeks ago. His rediscovery of the elder Dumas affirmed for me my inclination toward this exciting new anthology. Delighted to be representing the supremely well-read Mr. Ellsworth.

Read more

Excited with a New Assignment–Helping Protect the Freedom to Read/Part II

/0 Comments/in , /by

As I reported on The Great Gray Bridge last month, I have a new consulting client, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), a non-profit organization that acts as the voice independent booksellers and the book community raise in opposition to censorship and book banning.

Today, the daily book biz outlet Shelf Awareness reported on the new arrangement, with the additional news of another hire for ABFFE–Kristen Gilligan Vlahos, who will be working as ABFFE’s auction manager–which I’m happy to link to here along with screenshots of the Shelf’s item.

The funds Kristen and I are helping ABFFE raise support the Foundation’s programs promoting free expression and freedom to read, like their signature initiative, Banned Books Week. ABFFE also advocates for bookstore customer privacy, which has become a flashpoint several times over the past couple decades. If you want to learn more about ABFFE and help support their initiatives, there’s more background at this blog post of mine, and at ABFFE’s own website. You can also ‘like’ their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter, @freadom, an apt handle.
Shelf ABFFE itemShelf masthead

Read more

White-suited Mark Twain in Only Known Film Clip

/0 Comments/in , /by

As shared on the website Open Culture, which describes itself as offering “the best free cultural and educational media on the web,” here is the only known piece of moving picture film that includes Mark Twain. This was recorded in 1909, by Thomas Edison, a year before Twain’s death at age 74.

Read more

#FridayReads, March 8–“The Heretics” by Will Storr

/1 Comment/in /by

Heretics#FridayReads, March 8–The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science by Will Storr, a reporter’s journey through the nether regions of pseudo-science, religious fundamentalism, Holocaust deniers, climate change skeptics, and their ilk. I first heard of Storr’s book when I read his account of traveling with the odious David Irving to former concentration camps where the disgraced historian preached his so-called gospel to true believers that masses of Jews and other minorities were not annihilated during WWII.

Like Jon Ronson, author of  The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, and Them: Adventures With Extremists, whose books I made #FridayReads in December 2011 and again in January 2012, Storr is an affable traveler who is able to ingratiate himself with fringe characters, hang out with them, plumb the depths of their irrationality, and deliver a compelling story to readers. I highly recommend his book, and those by Jon Ronson. Them

Read more