The Red Smith Reader

by Dave Anderon (Editor), Terence Smith (Foreword)

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1976, Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith is considered one of the greatest sportswriters ever to live. Put alongside Ring Lardner, Red Smith was beloved by those who read him because of his crisp writing and critical views.Originally released in 1982, The Red Smith Reader is a wonderful collection of 131 columns with subjects ranging from baseball and fishing to golf, basketball, tennis, and boxing. As John Leonard of the New York Times appropriately stated, “Red Smith was to sports what Homer was to war.”With a fantastic foreword by his son, successful journalist Terence Smith, The Red Smith Reader shows true sportswriting from one of the masters of the craft. The writing and style of Red Smith will live forever, and this collection’s look into the past at what he saw and covered shows how far sports and sportswriting have come in our country.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports-books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team.Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Genres: Sports

322 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2014

Reviews

[Mike Bender · Rating 4 out of 5]

Closer to 4 1/2 stars than 4 - well-chosen collection spanning the '30s to the '80s that captures Red Smith's remarkable versatility (flyfishing, Trotsky, and Ali-Frazier I and III are just three column subjects). More manageable (read: shorter) than American Pastimes, it's organized in a very interesting fashion, burying some of Smith's better-known work in the middle (his baseball columns) while pushing football and other topics up front. A champion of the underdog with a keen sense of right and wrong, Smith could make just about anything he wrote about feel fresh and immediate - especially horse racing. Even if you're not a fan, you'll want to head to the track. Excellent read and a must for anyone who aspires to be a sports writer - emphasis on writer.

[Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Red Smith was a sports writer and columnist from the 1930s through the 70s. He primarily was a baseball writer, but as a columnist he covered everything, so this book is a span of his writings over 40 years. His writing was chauvinistic and racist at times, but the things that stood out to me were his belief that olympic athletes were professional and not true amateurs (long before it was okay to say so), professional athletes should attain free agency (especially in baseball), and Muhammed Ali's desire to be a conscientious objector during the Viet Nam War (he was probably one of the few writers at the time that supported Ali's position). A must read for those who love great sports writing.