The perfect gift for anybody who has ever swung a club or marveled at the skill of touring professionals on television, The Greatest Golf Stories Ever Told is a compulsively readable collection of some of the most entertaining and insightful stories on the subject of golf. Contributions include some well-known works from renowned writers of the genre, such as Dan Jenkins, Herbert Warren Wind, and John Updike, as well as some rare, lesser-known gems from George Plimpton, Bud Shrake, and the great F. Scott Fitzgerald. The thirty stories in this fascinating collection will lead you from tee to green, avoiding the bunkers while illustrating in vivid detail--through true and fictional tales--all the humor, drama, excitement, and emotion the game of golf is so richly steeped in.

Before multimillion-dollar salaries, luxury boxes, and player strikes became synonymous with professional sports, there existed the belief in playing simply for the love of the game. Nothing captures that spirit better than these twenty classic pieces about America's favorite pastime.
Collected here are the writings of Ring Lardner, Zane Grey, the Giants' immortal Christy Mathewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Finley Peter Dunne (who for a time was America's most popular humorist after Mark Twain), Burt Standish (creator of that all-American hero, Frank Merriwell), and many more. Baseball's golden era may have long since passed, but in the pages of At the Old Ballgame, you can still sit in the bleachers for a nickel.
Relive the golden era of baseball with timeless classics from:
Albert G. Spalding
Henry Chadwick
Ernest Lawrence Thayer
Grantland Rice
Sol White
Brig. Gen. Fredrick Funston
Zane Grey
Candy Cummings
Alfred H. Spink
Burt L. Standish
Lester Chadwick
Finley Peter Dunne
Christy Mathewson
Damon Runyon
Grover Cleveland Alexander
Gerald Beaumont
Ring Lardner
Hugh Fullerton
Ralph D. Blanpied
Charles E. Van Loan
P.G. Wodehouse

Recapture the golden era of golf with these amazing, historic tales.

Bernard Darwin could easily have settled into a privileged life as a respected lawyer - one who also just happened to be the grandson of Charles Darwin. But his conventional upbringing didn't prevent him from choosing a different path, abandoning the relative security of the law to follow his first and only passion - golf. While Darwin was no slouch on the links - captain of his golf team at Cambridge and twice in the semifinals of the British Amateur Championships - he achieved far greater notoriety with his pen than with his club. Starting as a weekly columnist for The Times of London (always signing his columns "Our Golf Correspondent"), he was soon acknowledged as one of the finest essayists in Britain. He was the first writer ever to elevate the discussion of golf beyond a simple reportage of events. He was also a regular contributor to Country Life and a frequent contributor to The Atlantic Monthly.

"Every once in a while, a book publisher comes up with a great concept for a series of books that deserve more than superficial recognition. Such a series is The Greatest (fill in the blank) Stories Ever Told, anthologies that should win places on many bedside tables. On the long winter nights that lie ahead, such stories make great reading." -The Lexington County Chronicle "THE GREATEST BOXING STORIES EVER TOLD assembles some of the best writing available on the sweet science and illuminates boxing in all its literal and symbolic glory. Each piece in this varied collection connects with the sort of powerful punch one can only expect from the world's greatest writers." -Boxing Digest In THE GREATEST BOXING STORIES EVER TOLD, editor Jeff Silverman delivers a knockout collection of not only the best writing ever penned on the subject of "the sweet science," but also stories that relate to the larger human issues the brutal sport has come to embody. Whether the story be about the triumph of a heroic champion, a tragic death in the ring, the shady tactics of fight promoters, or victories against seemingly impossible odds, each story in this varied collection connects powerfully with the reader. THE GREATEST BOXING STORIES EVER TOLD is the perfect gift for fight fans and non-fight fans alike, and with its allstar lineup of "contenders" throwing "haymakers" and "uppercuts" in every round, it stands as the definitive volume of short stories on this enduring pugilistic pastime.

At a 1931 barnstorming exhibition game in Tennessee, a seventeen-year-old pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back to back. Her name was Jackie Mitchell--"organized baseball's first girl pitcher." On September 9, 1965, Sandy Koufax made baseball history by pitching his fourth perfect game. In July 1970, a stripper rushed onto the field at Riverfront Stadium to kiss Johnny Bench, temporarily disrupting a game attended by President Nixon and his family. These are just some of the great, quirky, and comic moments in the annals of baseball recorded in THE GREATEST BASEBALL STORIES EVER TOLD. Here also are profiles of such legendary figures as Joe DiMaggio, Pete Rose, and Yogi Berra, essays that explore the complexities and pleasures of the game, even an excerpt from the movie" Bull Durham. "This is the perfect book for anyone who has ever played so much as a game of catch.
Contributors include:
John Updike
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Abbott & Costello
Ring Lardner
Bill Barich
Zane Grey
David James Duncan
Al Stump
Pete Hamill
P.G. Wodehouse
Damon Runyan
Roy Blount, Jr.
Richard Ben Cramer
Gay Talese
A. Bartlett Giamatti
and many more

Before multimillion-dollar salaries, luxury boxes, and player strikes became synonymous with professional sports, there existed the belief in playing simply "for the love of the game." Nothing captures that spirit better than these twenty classic pieces about America's favorite pastime. Collected here are the writings of Ring Lardner, Zane Grey, the Giants' immortal Christy Mathewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Finley Peter Dunne (who for a time was America's most popular humorist after Mark Twain), Burt Standish (creator of that all-American hero, Frank Merriwell), and many more. Baseball's golden era may have long since passed, but in the pages of Great American Baseball Stories, you can still sit in the bleachers for a nickel. Relive the golden era of baseball with timeless classics from: Albert G. Spalding Henry Chadwick Ernest Lawrence Thayer Grantland Rice Sol White Brig. Gen. Fredrick Funston Zane Grey Candy Cummings Alfred H. Spink Burt L. Standish Lester Chadwick Finley Peter Dunne Christy Mathewson Damon Runyon Grover Cleveland Alexander Gerald Beaumont Ring Lardner Hugh Fullerton Ralph D. Blanpied Charles E. Van Loan P.G. Wodehouse

The perfect gift for anybody who has ever swung a club or marveled at the skill of touring professionals on television, The Greatest Golf Stories Ever Told is a compulsively readable collection of some of the most entertaining and insightful reading on the subject of golf.
Contributions include some well-known works from renowned writers of the genre, such as Dan Jenkins, Herbert Warren Wind, and John Updike, as well as some rare, lesser-known gems from Gary McCord, Bud Shrake, and the great F. Scott Fitzgerald. The thirty stories in this fascinating collection will lead you from tee to green, avoiding the bunkers while illustrating in vivid detail - through true and fictional tales - all the humor, drama, excitement, and emotion the game of golf is so richly steeped in.

Bernard Darwin could easily have settled into a privileged life as a respected lawyer, one who just happened to be the grandson of Charles Darwin.
But his conventional upbringing didn't prevent him from choosing a different path, abandoning the relative security of the legal profession to follow his first and only passion-the game of golf. While Darwin was no slouch on the links-he was captain of his golf team at Cambridge and twice reached the semifinals of the British Amateur Championships-he achieved far greater notoriety with his pen than with his club.
Starting as a weekly columnist, and then a regular contributor, for The Times of London, he was soon acknowledged as one of the finest essayists in Britain (always signing his columns "Our Golf Correspondent"). He also contributed to Country Life for almost fifty years. Bernard was the first writer ever to elevate the discussion of golf beyond a simple reportage of events.
This collection gathers the finest of Darwin's writing, and is a celebration of a life devoted to a love for the game of golf.
Bernard Darwin was the golf game's most revered writer. He was a prominent authority on Charles Dickens and was the editor of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.