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Dispatches from the Sporting Life
by Richler, Mordecai
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Fine in Fine dust jacket
- ISBN 10
- 0676974775
- ISBN 13
- 9780676974775
- Seller
-
Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Toronto: Knopf Canada. Fine in Fine dust jacket. 2002. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. 0676974775 . About new book, unmarked, in crisp DJ. ; 295 pages; The first book to be set in the new Richler typeface, commissioned by Random House of Canada Limited and Jack Rabinovitch in memory of Mordecai.<br><br>Mordecai Richler’s final book pays homage to his personal heroes and celebrates a writer’s love of sport with his trademark irascibility, humour and acuity. <br><br>Even while writing his bestselling novels, Mordecai Richler nurtured his obsession with sports, writing brilliantly on ice hockey, baseball, salmon fishing, bodybuilding, and wrestling for such publications as <i>GQ</i>, <i>Esquire</i>, <i>The New York Times Magazine</i>, <i>Inside Sports</i>, <i>Commentary</i>, and <i>The New York Review of Books</i>. Mordecai himself chose the pieces to include in <i>Dispatches from the Sporting Life</i>, and together they give us an intimate portrait of a man who admired the players and prized the struggle of sport -- as much as he enjoyed skewering those who made a mockery of its principles.<br><br>His encounters with Pete Rose, Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe (“Mr. Elbows…the big guy with the ginger-ale bottle shoulders”) are by turns bizarre, moving and uproarious. Richler travelled with Guy LaFleur’s Montreal Canadiens (“Les Canadiens sont là !”), but also with the “far-from-incomparable” Trail Smoke Eaters to Stockholm for the world hockey championships, where Canadians are “widely known, and widely disliked.”<br><br>There are wonderful pieces here about Ring Lardner, George Plimpton, Hank Greenberg and lady umpires, and a marvellous essay on his unlimited enthusiasm for the all-inclusive <i>Encyclopedia of Jews in Sports</i>, which includes among its champions Sandy Koufax, “who may well be the greatest pitcher of all time, regardless of race, colour or creed,” as well as one Steve Allan Hertz, an infielder who played five total games in Houston in 1964 and had a batting average of .000. .
Synopsis
Mordecai Richler wrote ten novels and numerous screenplays, essays, children’s books and several works of non-fiction. During his career, he was the recipient of dozens of literary awards, including two Governor General’s Awards, the Giller Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada a few months before his death on July 3, 2001.
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Details
- Bookseller
- B-Line Books
(CA)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 38486
- Title
- Dispatches from the Sporting Life
- Author
- Richler, Mordecai
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine in Fine dust jacket
- Edition
- First Edition; First Printing
- ISBN 10
- 0676974775
- ISBN 13
- 9780676974775
- Publisher
- Knopf Canada
- Place of Publication
- Toronto
- Date Published
- 2002
- Keywords
- 0676974775
Terms of Sale
B-Line Books
Return: If the book is not as described, we will refund cost of book and shipping. If for any reason the buyer does not want the book, even though it is as described, we will offer a refund minus shipping both ways (within 14 days).
About the Seller
B-Line Books
Biblio member since 2003
Amherst, Nova Scotia
About B-Line Books
B-Line Books is an internet business operating from my large home in Amherst, Nova Scotia. I am a retired English teacher with a lifetime of gathered books for sale. Presently, about 24,000 books in 90 categories are listed with an emphasis in the humanities. I look for books I am interested in myself, and feel that most of the inventory is of high quality. See for yourself.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Crisp
- A term often used to indicate a book's new-like condition. Indicates that the hinges are not loosened. A book described as crisp...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
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