|
Man o' War: A Legend Like Lightning
|
| List Price: | $24.95 |
| Price: | $16.47 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
57 new or used available from $2.48
Average customer review:
Product Description
Born in 1917, Man o’ War grew from a rebellious youngster into perhaps the greatest racehorse of all time. He set such astonishing speed records that The New York Times called him a “Speed Miracle.” Often he won with so much energy in reserve that experts wondered how much faster he could have gone. Over the years, this and other mysteries would envelop the great Man o’ War.
The truth remained problematic. Even as Man o’ War---known as “Big Red”---came to power, attracting record crowds and rave publicity, the colorful sport of Thoroughbred racing struggled for integrity. His lone defeat, suffered a few weeks before gamblers fixed the 1919 World Series, spawned lasting rumors that he, too, had been the victim of a fix.
Tackling old beliefs with newly uncovered evidence, Man o’ War: A Legend Like Lightning shows how human pressures collided with a natural phenomenon and brings new life to an American icon. The genuine courage of Man o’ War, tribulations of his archrival, Sir Barton (America’s first Triple Crown winner), and temptations of their Hall of Fame jockeys and trainers reveal a long-hidden tale of grace, disgrace, and elusive redemption.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #516703 in Books
- Published on: 2006-05-02
- Released on: 2006-05-02
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 352 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Unfortunately for authors like Ours, who has worked at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, all horse racing books must now be judged in light of Laura Hillenbrand's outstanding Seabiscuit. And while Man o' War (born in 1917), voted by racing experts as the No. 1 American race horse of the 20th century, kept winning his races and breaking speed records, Ours's account of his career isn't even in the money. This is a far less sophisticated recounting than Hillenbrand's, lacking the broad social context, and since Man o' War was a winner from the get-go, Ours lacks a dramatic narrative arc. But she does have a command of horse-racing technique and history, and offers some interesting tidbits and anecdotes. Sometimes the book feels puffed: for a while it focuses more on another champion, Sir Barton, than on Man o' War; only much later does it become clear why-the two great horses finally meet in a match race, and at this point, the pace of the story picks up nicely for a dramatic finish.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Laura Hillenbrand, in her best-selling Seabiscuit (2001), set the bar awfully high for scholarly research in just about any genre, let alone what might be called racehorse biographies. Very much to her credit, Ours meets Hillenbrand's standard in her exhaustively researched account of the career and human connections of Man o' War, usually conceded to be the greatest racehorse who ever competed in America. Man o' War dominated racing in 1919 and 1920, winning 20 of 21 starts and setting speed records nearly every time he raced as a three-year-old. Such uninterrupted excellence, however, poses a problem for any biographer. Man o' War's saga lacks the drama of Seabiscuit's rise from obscurity and comeback from injury. Nor are the stories of Man o' War's human connections as compelling as those of Seabiscuit's, though the history of jockey Johnny Loftus is more than intriguing. Also of great interest is the remarkably detailed account of Man o' War's most famous race, a showdown with the older Sir Barton, America's first Triple Crown winner, at an unlikely bush track in Canada. Finally, Ours uncovers the true reasons for Man o' War's early retirement, which ended a career that seemed destined to dwarf the accomplishments of those who came before him and set an impossibly high standard for those who followed. Even without Seabiscuit's dramatic trappings, this is must reading for racing fans, and it will reward anyone with an interest in the history of American sport. Dennis Dodge
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“Written with an effortless command of history and language, Man o’ War frees Thoroughbred racing’s greatest icon from nearly a century of mythology and mystery. In its pages, Man o’ War lives in all his complexity: emphatic, breathtaking, maddening, both a blessing and a curse to those who cultivated his superlative talent. Man o’ War is a riveting work, researched meticulously and told brilliantly.”
---Laura Hillenbrand, New York Times bestselling author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend
“You take twenty-two chapters, mix in one spectacular Thoroughbred racehorse, and gently blend in just enough inscrutability, dishonesty, and plot---voilá! One must-read book that equals hours of unadulterated pleasure.”
---George M. Steinbrenner III
“The golden era of racing and its greatest star come to life in the vivid pages of Dorothy Ours’s outstanding retrospective on Man o’ War.”
---Joe Hirsch, Daily Racing Form
Customer Reviews
The Best Book on Man o' War
I've been a Man o' War fan since childhood, and Ours' biography of the champion is the best of all that I've read. Like Laura Hillenbrand's "Seabiscuit," Ours' book is meticulously researched, using contemporary newspaper and magazine accounts of Big Red's career and secondary sources. Ours is a talented writer and her prose captures the excitement surrounding Man o' War's races - you really feel like you are there by the rail watching him run!
Like the Man, a Winner
Dorothy Ours' Man o'War was the first book on horse racing for me, and I found it a fascinating read. My research into other events of 1919-20 gave me a feel for the times, and this account meshed well.
I found myself looking forward to each race, even though I knew the outcome. The detail is incredible, the reader is never given too much or too little. We also get to know the great horses' supporting casts - the owners, trainers, jockeys, and more. This was a treat, a story worth telling, and well-told.
Disappointing
I suspect many folks considering this book are like me: really loved Seabiscuit, looking for more like it. This book had some glowing reviews on its cover (including one from Laura Hillenbrand) and mostly favorable reviews here, so I was optimistic. But I found the book very disappointing. The quality of the writing is second-rate. Her knowledge of the subject seems fine, but I wasn't looking for facts, I was looking for an engaging story. I wish I'd read the first 10 or 20 pages before buying it.
