From Booklist
Kahn will be forever linked to his 1972 classic The Boys of Summer a melancholy chronicle of the baseball and postbaseball lives of the 1956 world champion Brooklyn Dodgers. Kahn's favored milieu may be baseball, but he's also profiled or interviewed such luminaries as poet Robert Frost ("The Young Writer Meets the Aged Poet"), and his books include an examination of Jewish America (The Passionate People, 1968) and a study of campus rebellion (The Battle for Morningside Heights, 1970). Baseball is the subject of most of the selections included in this anthology, but a baseball article by Kahn is to other baseball articles what a Tony Bennett tune is to the song stylings of the crooner at your local piano bar. Among the highlights here are selections from Kahn's chronicle of his experiences owning a minor-league baseball team ("The Dreams of the Young"), a profile of an alcoholic Mickey Mantle, and the previously mentioned Robert Frost interview. Kahn is a giant among sports journalists, and this is a fine sampling of his most memorable work. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description

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.

From the Back Cover

Spanning half a century, the first comprehensive anthology of "sliders with social history," writings from the legendary sportswriter Roger Kahn

"This is my nineteenth book; all my life I've tried to write literature. I am aware that like Stan Musial or Ted Williams at the bat most of the time I've failed. But the critical word is 'try.' That effort has been a wonder of my life."
--Roger Kahn, from the Prologue

"Roger Kahn is the best of all with his sweet ear for the cadence of baseball talk."
--Donald Hall, New York Times Book Review

From the beginning of his career, as a young man reporting on sports for the New York Herald Tribune, Roger Kahn labored to create literature. After painstaking research and observation, he would sit down at his desk and "write like hell," working to turn everyday events into art. For the next fifty years, he never stopped.

Today, Roger Kahn is arguably the greatest sportswriter of his generation. Most famous for his modern classic, The Boys of Summer--hailed by James Michener as "the finest American book on sports"--Kahn is the author of eighteen books and the only baseball writer to have had three titles on the New York Times bestseller list. While he is best known for his "sweet ear" for America's national pastime, Kahn did not limit himself to baseball. With his literary style of reportage, he explored the depths of basketball and boxing, Judaism and McCarthyism, and even poetry in an unforgettable interview with one of his heroes, Robert Frost.

For the first time, Beyond the Boys of Summer presents a showcase of fifty years' worth of Kahn's celebrated work. Uniquely organized around life's stages--from youth to old age--the book brings you face-to-face with some of the greatest names in sports, including Muhammad Ali, Jack Dempsey, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Willie Mays, and Pete Rose. Beyond sports, Kahn takes you back to the tumultuous days of 1968 to witness the violent protest of a student rebellion. He brings you to a bar mitzvah for a hilarious and controversial look at the Jewish ceremony. And he invites you for a quiet walk through the tree-lined streets of Brooklyn, where his father instilled in him an undying love for baseball.

Harking back to a time when newspaper writing was an art form and Roger Kahn was one of its most accomplished masters, Beyond the Boys of Summer is nothing less than a literary accomplishment of the highest order.

About the Author

Roger Kahn is widely acclaimed as the greatest sportswriter of his generation. Sports Illustrated named his 1972 classic, The Boys of Summer, the best baseball book of all time. Author of the recent bestseller October Men, Kahn was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1993. He lives in Stone Ridge, New York.

Rob Miraldi has a doctorate in American Studies and is a professor of journalism at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Miraldi started his career as a sportswriter. He lives in New Paltz, New York.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Beyond the Boys of Summer presents a showcase of fifty years' worth of Roger Kahn's celebrated work. Uniquely organized around life's stages - from youth to old age - the book brings you face-to-face with some of the greatest names in sports, including Muhammad Ali, Babe Ruth, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Willie Mays, and Pete Rose. While he is best known for his "sweet ear" for America's national pastime, Kahn did not limit himself to baseball. With his literary style of reportage, he explores the depths of basketball and boxing, Judaism and McCarthyism, and even poetry in an unforgettable interview with one of his heroes, Robert Frost.

SYNOPSIS

From the beginning of his career, as a young man reporting on sports for the New York Herald Tribune, Roger Kahn labored to create literature. After painstaking research and observation, he would sit down at his desk and "write like hell," working to turn everyday events into art. For the next fifty years, he never stopped.

Today, Roger Kahn is arguably the greatest sportswriter of his generation. Most famous for his modern classic, The Boys of Summer--hailed by James Michener as "the finest American book on sports"--Kahn is the author of eighteen books and the only baseball writer to have had three titles on the New York Times bestseller list. While he is best known for his "sweet ear" for America's national pastime, Kahn did not limit himself to baseball. With his literary style of reportage, he explored the depths of basketball and boxing, Judaism and McCarthyism, and even poetry in an unforgettable interview with one of his heroes, Robert Frost.

For the first time, Beyond the Boys of Summer presents a showcase of fifty years' worth of Kahn's celebrated work. Uniquely organized around life's stages--from youth to old age--the book brings you face-to-face with some of the greatest names in sports, including Muhammad Ali, Jack Dempsey, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Willie Mays, and Pete Rose. Beyond sports, Kahn takes you back to the tumultuous days of 1968 to witness the violent protest of a student rebellion. He brings you to a bar mitzvah for a hilarious and controversial look at the Jewish ceremony. And he invites you for a quiet walk through the tree-lined streets of Brooklyn, where his father instilled in him an undying love for baseball. Harking back to a time when newspaper writing was an art form and Roger Kahn was one of its most accomplished masters, Beyond the Boys of Summer is nothing less than a literary accomplishment of the highest order.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

There may be no greater sports book than The Boys of Summer, Kahn's lauded memoir of the Jackie Robinson-era Dodgers, but down the years he has also written superbly about his ownership of a minor league team, the "head game" of pitching, the stormy miracle of the '78 Yankee season, the Columbia sit-ins, the poet Robert Frost, and Jack Dempsey. This eloquent and incisive anthology from Kahn is for all baseball collections. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Donald Hall, New York Times Book Review"Roger Kahn is the best of all with his sweet ear for the cadence of baseball talk."  — Donald Hall