David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who chronicled the Vietnam War generation, civil rights and the world of sports, was killed in a car crash Monday [south of San Francisco], his wife and local authorities said. He was 73.Halberstam was the author of Summer of '49 and October 1964.
in the (year 2000....sorry) future, people will look back on our time and be like 'why the *fuck* did they travel in those death machines?' srsly, so many people are killed in car accidents. it's just super-dumb (and super-sad. rip mr. halberstam)
ReplyDeleteHe also wrote 'The Teammates', about the lifelong friendship between Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Dom DiMaggio and Bobby Doerr.
ReplyDeleteRemember meeting him at a benefit? You were working on your book, and - knowing it was about the Red Sox - he asked, Why 1918? I thought it was strange that he didn't know.
ReplyDeleteI do remember that.
ReplyDelete(Also, there are a surprisingly amount of easy-to-check factual errors in both Summer of '49 and October 1964.
Bill James wrote about the errors in '49 in his 1991 Baseball Abstract, such as Mel Parnell was not a rookie in 1948, Gene Bearden did not win the Rookie of the Year award, Jackie Robinson did not steal bases "at will" against Yogi Berra in the 1947 series (he stole one), and Denny Galehouse was not primarily used in relief in 1948.
I believe Halberstam relied on interviews with the men involved and apparently never went back to see if their recollections matched the facts.)
I believe Halberstam relied on interviews with the men involved and apparently never went back to see if their recollections matched the facts.
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me that a professional would do that. It reflects so badly on his editor, too.
Ah, well. A sad passing nonetheless.