FROM THE PUBLISHER

Much has been written about the great Joe DiMaggio, both fact and fiction. As the man who knew DiMaggio best, his longtime friend, attorney, and business manager Morris Engelberg felt it was time to set the record straight. With additional research and interviews by co-author Marv Schneider, a veteran sportswriter for the Associated Press, DiMaggio: Setting the Record Straight offers an intimate and honest view of a cherished American figure.

Joe DiMaggio was one of the most recognizable athletes of the twentieth century, yet he was also an intensely private man who kept his cards close to his chest. Only a small number of people were privy to Joltin' Joe's hopes, fears, and dreams, his intimate moments. Over the last sixteen years of DiMaggio's life, Engelberg was a near-constant companion. He was with him until the very end, there at Joe's side to hear the great ballplayer's dying words.

In this engaging new book, Engelberg provides a rare glimpse into DiMaggio's relationship with his estranged son and reveals DiMaggio's feelings about Marilyn Monroe, the Kennedys, politics, and fellow ballplayers. It is a story of deep friendship, of unquestioned loyalty by a middle-aged man exhibiting a boyish devotion to a graying American idol.

Author Biography: Morris Engelberg was Joe DiMaggio's business advisor, attorney, and confidante during the last 16 years of the ballplayer's life. Engelberg was a devoted friend to his boyhood idol. Their close relationship gave him rare access to the private DiMaggio. Engelberg is an attorney in south Florida, specializing in tax and probate law

Marv Schneider was a sportswriter and editor for the Associated Press for 43 years. Heinterviewed Joe DiMaggio several times and wrote a memorable piece for DiMaggio's 80th birthday. Schneider broke the news of the Yankee Clipper's death in 1999. He has been broadcasting sports stories for AP Radio since the network was established nearly 30 years ago, and he continues to serve as a correspondent. Born in Yonkers, New York, he currently lives in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The New York Yankees made Joe DiMaggio a household name, but it took Brooklyn-born, Florida-based attorney Morris Engelberg to make DiMaggio wealthy. Now, Engelberg puts his personal spin on the life and times of the Yankee Clipper, who died in 1999, with Engelberg by his side, after a short battle with lung cancer. But contrary to the book's provocative subtitle, Engelberg's effort is little more than a paean to DiMaggio, his childhood idol turned dream client. Engelberg writes that he regarded DiMaggio, whose affairs he managed for the last 16 years of the slugger's life, as his "best friend" rather than a client. Not surprisingly, the book reads as though it were written by a best friend, heavy on deference and light on detail-except when it comes to Engelberg's record-setting success in peddling DiMaggio to memorabilia dealers. Indeed, more baseballs are signed than swatted in this version of DiMaggio's life, while DiMaggio's legendary 13-year Hall-of-Fame career, which includes a record 56-game hitting streak and nine World Series rings, is recalled in a brisk 60 pages. Off the field, DiMaggio's famously complicated relationships, including those with his brother and rival, Red Sox outfielder Dom DiMaggio, and Yankee teammates like Gehrig and Mantle, are largely unexplored. Even chapters devoted to DiMaggio's relationships with ex-wife Marilyn Monroe, and his estranged son, Joe Jr., are shallow and disappointing. To his credit, Engelberg clearly made DiMaggio a rich man. But his almost unsettling reverence for and loyalty to his subject overwhelm any attempts, however timid, to truly understand one of the game's greatest and most enigmatic icons. Photos not seen by PW. (Feb. 25) Forecast: MBI is backing this title with an $85,000 marketing campaign and a seven-city author tour, but this biography will still fall well short of Richard Ben Cramer's Joe DiMaggio. Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

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