In The Fly Swatter, Nicholas Dawidoff--bestselling author of The Catcher Was a Spy--vividly reconstructs the life of his grandfather, Alexander Gerschenkron-the Harvard professor who knew the most. A fascinating character, Gerschenkron feuded with Vladimir Nabokov and John Kenneth Galbraith, flirted with Marlene Dietrich, and played chess with Marcel Duchamp and one-upped both Isiah Berlin and (allegedly) Ted Williams. At Harvard, this celebrated polyglot was known as The Great Gerschenkron. He was an influential economic theorist who knew twenty languages and so much about...
In The Fly Swatter, Nicholas Dawidoff--bestselling author of The Catcher Was a Spy--vividly reconstructs the life of his grandfather, Al...
In a series of indelible portraits of country music stars, Dawidoff reveals, among others, Jimmie Rodgers, the "father of Country"; Johnny Cash, the "Man in Black"; and Patsy Cline, a lonely figure striding out bravely in a man's world. In the Country of Country is a passionate and expansive account of a quintessentially American art form and the performers that made country music what it is today. Both deeply personal and endlessly evocative, In the Country of Country pays tribute to the music that sprang from places like Maces Springs, Virginia, home of the Carter Family,...
In a series of indelible portraits of country music stars, Dawidoff reveals, among others, Jimmie Rodgers, the "father of Country"; Johnny Cash, the "...
NATIONAL BESTSELLER Moe Berg is the only major-league baseball player whose baseball card is on display at the headquarters of the CIA. For Berg was much more than a third-string catcher who played on several major league teams between 1923 and 1939. Educated at Princeton and the Sorbonne, he as reputed to speak a dozen languages (although it was also said he couldn't hit in any of them) and went on to become an OSS spy in Europe during World War II. As Nicholas Dawidoff follows Berg from his claustrophobic childhood through his glamorous (though equivocal) careers in sports...
NATIONAL BESTSELLER Moe Berg is the only major-league baseball player whose baseball card is on display at the headquarters of the CIA. For...
Back in the 1940s and 1950s, almost every small town in America had a baseball team. Most players were simply local heroes with a local following, but a few teams achieved fame far beyond their region. The Alpine Cowboys--despite being based in Texas's remote, sparsely populated Big Bend country--became a star in the firmament of semi-pro baseball. Lavishly underwritten by a wealthy rancher with a passion not only for baseball but even more for helping young men get a good start in life, the Cowboys played on a "field of dreams" whose facilities rivaled those of professional ballparks....
Back in the 1940s and 1950s, almost every small town in America had a baseball team. Most players were simply local heroes with a local following, ...
An unrivaled portrait of day-to-day life in the NFL: "Riveting...An instant classic." -- "New York Times Book Review" By spending a year with the New York Jets, Nicholas Dawidoff entered a mysterious and private world with its own rituals and language. Equal parts "Paper Lion, Moneyball, Friday Night Lights, "and "The Office, "this absorbing, funny, and vivid narrative gets to the heart of a massive and stressful collective endeavor. Here is football in many faces: the polarizing, brilliant, and hilarious head coach; the general manager, whose job is to support (and suppress) the...
An unrivaled portrait of day-to-day life in the NFL: "Riveting...An instant classic." -- "New York Times Book Review" By spending a year with the ...
The book that made a legend--and capture's America's sport in detail that's never been matched, now featuring a foreword by Nicholas Dawidoff a and never-before-seen content from the Plimpton Archives. George Plimpton was perhaps best known for PAPER LION, the book that set the bar for participatory sports journalism. With his characteristic wit, Plimpton recounts his experiences in talking his way into training camp with the Detroit Lions, practicing with the team, and taking snaps behind center. His breezy style captures the pressures and tensions rookies confront, the...
The book that made a legend--and capture's America's sport in detail that's never been matched, now featuring a foreword by Nicholas Dawidoff a
