Product Description

"Grantland Rice was the greatest man I have known," Red Smith once wrote. "The greatest talent, the greatest gentleman." Most of Rice's contemporaries would have shared this assessment. One of the most celebrated sportswriters of all time, it was Grantland Rice who immortalized Notre Dame's outstanding 1924 backfield as "The Four Horsemen," who nicknamed Red Grange "The Galloping Ghost," and who authored one of the most frequently quoted poetic couplets in all of sport: "For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, / He writes--not that you won or lost--but how you played the Game." But more important, if we see the 1920s and 1930s--the era of Jack Dempsey and Babe Ruth and Bobby Jones--as a Golden Age of Sport, it is in large part because Grant Rice saw them as golden, and conveyed this golden vision to millions of readers daily.

In Sportswriter, Charles Fountain provides the first full-length biography of Grantland Rice. This colorful, vividly narrated portrait ranges from Rice's childhood in Nashville, to his days as star athlete at Vanderbilt, to his first jobs in Atlanta, Nashville, and New York, to his prime as the most popular, most read sportswriter of his day, the dean of a remarkable group of 1920s writers that included Heywood Broun, Damon Runyon, Paul Gallico, and Ring Lardner. Fountain provides unforgettable portraits of Rice's extraordinarily wide range of friends, from cartoonist Rube Goldberg and columnist Franklin P. Adams, to sports legends Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, and Bobby Jones, to his closest friend, Ring Lardner, a man who was in many ways his opposite. We learn of Rice's staggering accomplishments as sportswriter, which included writing a column that appeared six days a week in over a hundred newspapers, selecting an All-America Football Team that was the All-America team for more than 20 years, editing The American Golfer, the leading golf magazine for over a decade, producing and narrating numerous film shorts, and in general publishing some 67 million words over a 53 year career. And as Fountain tells this story, he also provides memorable snapshots of American life: the small-town baseball teams at the turn of the century, the bustling newspaper world of New York City (at a time when there were 14 daily papers in New York, twelve on and around Park Row), and most of all, some of the great sporting events of all time, including the Dempsey-Willard heavyweight bout, the 1919 Black Sox World Series scandal, Bobby Jones's Grand Slam, and much more.

Here then is the colorful life and times of a man who loved sports--who loved the contests, loved the atmosphere, loved the camaraderie of the press box and of a passenger-train drawing room--and who loved sharing it all with the millions who read his work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #679455 in Books
• Published on: 1993-11-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Grantland Rice (1880-1954) was arguably the best and certainly the most famous sportswriter of his time, the era also of Ring Lardner, Damon Runyon and Heywood Broun, who were his friends. Fountain ( Another Man's Poison ) approaches his subject with affection, admiration and not a hint of condescension. Rice's style was florid, he was a hero-worshipper and he was addicted to writing sentimental doggerel, of which he was inordinately proud, but these stylistic elements were prized by his fans. A Tennessee native and a Vanderbilt graduate, he worked for papers in the South and Midwest, then went to New York City in 1911, where he wrote for the Mail , the Tribune (for which he did his best work), the World-Telegram and the Mirror and was syndicated in almost 100 papers. He was a prodigious worker, but always made time to assist a beginning reporter, to befriend sports stars like Ruth, Dempsey and Bobby Jones and to become an excellent golfer. Fountain's celebration of Rice is a vivid introduction for a new generation to this consummate pro.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA-America's Golden Age of Sports is recounted through the life story of the gifted writer who immortalized its heroes. Rice was the best-known sportswriter in the U.S. for 40 years, but he was also a beat writer, poet, and by all accounts a supreme gentleman, remembered for his critical yet unjaded eye and prolific, graceful dispatches. This glowing biography traces his career from his rookie assignment in Nashville to his eventual syndication in 100 newspapers. Fountain relates in detail his close friendships with legends such as Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, and Bobby Jones, not to mention with writers such as Ring Lardner and Paul Gallico. He also looks at the changing role of newspapers (and the crucial importance of their sports sections) in the first half of the 20th century. This enthralling story is well written, replete with humorous anecdotes and selections of Rice's verse and sportswriting. It will appeal to sports fanatics and general readers alike.
Christopher Solomon, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
As a journalist during the first half of the 20th century, Rice raised sports reporting to majestic heights. His prose immortalized the events on the playing fields of America. His phrase describing a Notre Dame vs. Army football game--"Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again..."--became as legendary as the young men whose fame he described. Fountain (journalism, Northeastern Univ.) has skillfully re-created the life and time when epic conquests and defeats were played and reported for their own intrinsic value. Seldom have subject and biographer written with such similar style. The pages of this book echo with the past glories of athletes such as Ty Cobb, Red Grange, Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Bobby Jones, Joe Louis, and Babe Didrikson, but especially of the man who painted vivid literary protraits of these legends. Very highly recommended.
- Albert Spencer, Coll. of Education, Univ. of Nevada-Las Vegas
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Great Sports History
Under an ink laden sky filled with the whites of...I read this classic. For true sports fans and fans of sports history, this is a must read. A bit fluffy, but incredibally nostalgic reading. Makes one wish they were there to read his work on an every day basis. Where is the poetry and visual writing in the columns of today? With no TV and early radio, Rice helped romantisize sports in it's heyday. No wonder they were such myths/legends.

Ten stars
I have no idea how this book didn't receive more attention because, this is absolutely one of the best sports related books ever written. The quotes of Mr.Rice are still alive more than 50 years after he wrote them. "When the One Great Scorer comes to write against your name, he marks not that you won or lost, buy how you played the game."