Roger Kahn Reader

Most famous for his classic work The Boys of Summer, Roger Kahn is widely regarded as one of the greatest sportswriters of our time. The Roger Kahn Reader is a rich collection of his stories and articles that originally appeared in publications such as Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, Esquire, and the Nation. Kahn’s pieces, published between 1952 and today, present a vivid, turbulent, and intimate picture of more than half a century in American sport. His standout writings bring us close to entrepreneurs and hustlers (Walter O'Malley and Don King), athletes of Olympian gifts (Ted Williams, Stan Musial, “Le Demon Blond” Guy Lefleur), and sundry compelling issues of money, muscle, and myth. We witness Roger Maris’s ordeal by fame; Bob Gibson’s blazing competitive fire; and Red Smith, now white-haired and renowned, contemplating his beginnings and his future. Also included is a new and original chapter, “Clem,” about the author’s compelling lifelong friendship with former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Clem Labine.  Written across six decades, this volume shows Kahn’s ability to describe the athletes he profiled as they truly were in a manner neither compromised nor cruel but always authentic and up close.

"Roger Kahn is all about words and a sensibility that respects athletes, especially baseball players, for their sublime skills, but especially for their love and dedication to their exacting sport. He is remorseless about racism, cruelty and hypocrisy, but above all appreciative of talent and integrity. . . . Spending a few hours with The Roger Kahn Reader is like a time-machine voyage back to a sports world of authentic heroes, colorful but not obnoxious characters, just causes, smart talk and love of the games. Roger Kahn helped create that world and reanimates it here for our pleasure."—Edward Kosner, Wall Street Journal, "Nearly 70 years later, the universe may still yawn, but readers who grew up with Kahn will be very interested indeed in this collection that is nostalgic but not saccharine, moral but flawed. The Roger Kahn Reader compiles many of the author’s most successful attempts to lift the reader from the page and welcome them into a conversation amongst friends."—Hannah Mueller, Communication Booknotes Quarterly, Praise for Roger Kahn’s work:   “Kahn is the best baseball writer in the business.”—The New York Review of Books   “[Kahn writes] with an elegant authority that—without false sentiment or excessive nostalgia—puts certain elements of the diamond game’s good old days in clear and compelling perspective.”—Kirkus Reviews   “Kahn weaves such personal information into his rich descriptions of thrilling regular-season, playoff and World Series games. And in doing so he endows the players, managers and owners with more dynamic dimensions than any baseball writer of his generation.”—Chicago Tribune

Roger Kahn (1927–2020) has been called the dean of American sportswriters and is the author of the best-selling classic The Boys of Summer. The author of eighteen nonfiction books and two novels, his books Memories of Summer: When Baseball Was an Art, and Writing about It a Game; The Era, 1947–1957: When the Yankees, the Giants, and the Dodgers Ruled the World; A Season in the Sun; and Good Enough to Dream are all available from the University of Nebraska Press. Bill Dwyre was sports editor of the Los Angeles Times for twenty-five years and a columnist for nine years until he retired in 2015. He won the 1996 Red Smith Award for contributions to sports journalism, the AP Sports Editors’ highest honor.