ENG 260 syllabus > books and materials > related readings

The following is a selection of various types of sports fiction and studies on the literature of sports. As I mentioned in the previous subsection "required texts" of this "books and materials" section of the syllabus, none of these items is required for you to purchase nor read; I give them to you as optional relevant reading, and that's all.

You can browse through this list now, or just proceed to "Announcements," the first subsection of the next "main parts of the course" section of our syllabus.

Aethlon: The Journal of Sports Literature. 1988-

Alguire, Judith. Iced! Norwich, VT: New Victoria Publishers, 1995.

Aymar, Brandt, ed. Men in Sports: Great Sports Stories of All Time from the Greek Olympic Games to the American World Series. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 1995

Barnes, Stuart. Nice Tries: An Anthology of New Rugby Writing. London: Viktor Gollancz, 1996.

Beardsley, Doug, ed. Our Game: An All-Star Collection of Hockey Fiction. Victoria, BC and Custer, WA: Polestar Book Publishers, 1997.

Beaumont, Bill and Neil Hanson. Bill Beaumont's Rugby Masterpieces. New edition. London: Sidgwick and Jackson, Ltd., 1993.

Bechard, Gorman. Balls. New York: Plume, 1995.

Berman, Neil David. Playful Fictions and Fictional Players: Game, Sport, and Survival in Contemporary American Fiction. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1981.

Blaustein, Noah, ed. Motion: American Sports Poems. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2001

Bjarkman, Peter C., ed. Baseball and the Game of Life: Stories for the Thinking Fan. New York: Birch Books, 1980.

Brooks, Kevin and Sean Brooks, eds. Thru the Smoky End Boards: Canadian Poetry about Sports and Games. Vancouver: Polestar Book Publishers, 1996.

Bruccoli, Matthew J., ed. Ring around the Bases: The Complete Baseball Stories of Ring Lardner. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2003.

Buchwald, Emilie and Ruth Roston, eds. This Sporting Life: Poems about Sports and Games. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 1998.

Burns, Grant. The Sports Pages: A Critical Bibliography of Twentieth-Century American Novels and Stories Featuring Baseball, Basketball, Football, and other Athletic Pursuits. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1947.

Cocchiarale, Michael and Scott D. Emmert. Upon Further Review: Sports in American Literature. Westport: Praeger, 2004.

Coover, Robert. The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. New York: New American Library, 1968.

Daley, Robert. Only a Game. New York: New American Library, 1967.

Daniels, Calvin. Skating the Edge. Saskatoon, SK: Thistledown Press, 2001.

Deford, Frank. The Entitled:A Tale of Modern Baseball. Napierville, IL: Sourcebooks Landmark, 2007.

DeLillo, Don. End Zone. New York: Penguin, 1972.

Dexter, Pete. Train. New York: Doubleday, 2003.

Dodge, Tom, ed. A Literature of Sports. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1980.

Francis, Dick. New York: Under Orders. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2006.

Francis, Dick and John Welcome (eds.). The New Treasury of Great Racing Stories. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992.

Gardner, Leonard. Fat City. New York: Farar, Straus and Giroux, 1969.

Gent, Peter. North Dallas Forty. New York: Morrow, 1973.

Green, Tim. The Red Zone. New York: Warner Books, 1998.

Green, Tim. Ruffians. New York: St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1994.

Green, Tim. Titans. New York: St Martin’s Press, 1994.

Greenberg, Eric Rolfe. The Celebrant. New York: Everest House, 1983.

Greenberg, Richard. Take Me Out. New York: Faber & Faber, 2003.

Grimes, Tom. Season's End. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.

Grisham, John. Bleachers. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

Gurney, A. R. Big Bill. New York: Broadway Play Pub, 2005. (suggested to me by Anne Towns of Florida State University)

Hallberg, William, ed. Perfect Lies: A Century of Great Golf Stories. New York: Touchstone Books, 1998.

Harris, Mark. Bang the Drum Slowly. Second Edition. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

Harris, Mark. The Southpaw. Second Edition. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

Hays, Donald. The Dixie Association. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1997.

Heinz, W. C. The Professional. New York: Harper, 1958.

Higgs, Robert J. Laurel and Thorn: the Athlete in American Literature. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1981.

Holtzman, Jerome, ed. Fielder's Choice. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979.

Howard, Robert E. Boxing Stories. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.

Hyman, Laurence J., ed. Tales of the Diamond: Selected Gems of Baseball Fiction. New York: Woodford Publishing, 1995.

Isaacs, Neil D. The Doaker's Story. Huron, OH: Drinian Press, 2009.

Isaacs, Neil D. The Great Molinas. Bethesda, MD: Wid Publishing Group, 1993.

Jenkins, Dan. Dead Solid Perfect. New York: Doubleday, 1974.

Jenkins, Dan. Semi-Tough. New York: Atheneum, 1972.

Johnson, Don, ed. Hummers, Knucklers, and Slow Curves: Contemporary Baseball Poems. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1991

Johnston, Wayne. The Divine Ryans. New York: Broadway Books, 1999.

Jones, Rolin. The Jammer: A Five-Stridin' Valentine. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2008. (suggested to me by Anne Towns of Florida State University)

Kinsella, W.P., ed. Baseball Fantastic. Kingston, ON: Quarry Out of This World, 2001.

Kinsella, W.P. The Dixon Cornbelt League and Other Baseball Stories. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.

Kinsella, W.P. The Further Adventures of Slugger McBatt. Toronto, ON: HarperCollins Publishers Canada, Limited, 1988.

Kinsella, W.P. The Iowa Baseball Confederacy. New York: Ballantine Books, 1996.

Kinsella, W.P. Japanese Baseball and Other Stories. Saskatoon, SK: Thistledown Press, 2000.

Kinsella, W.P. Magic Time. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 2001.

Kinsella, W.P. Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa. Dallas, TX: Southern Methodist University Press, 1993.

Knudson, R. R. and May Swenson, eds. American Sports Poems. New York: Orchard Books, 1988.

Lardner, Ring. You Know Me, Al: A Busher's Letters. New York: George H. Doran Co., 1916.

LaSalle, Peter. Hockey sur Glace: Stories. New York: Breakaway Books, 1996.

Lauricella, John A. Home Games: Essays on Baseball Fiction. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 1999.

London, Jack. The Abysmal Brute. New York: Century, 1913.

London, Jack. The Game. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1905.

Malamud, Bernard. The Natural. New York: Avon, 1952.

Maranville, Walter. Run, Rabbit, Run: The Hilarious and Mostly True Tales of Rabbit Maranville. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Press, 1991.

Markus, Michael. East of Mourning. New Bern, NC: Trafford Publishing, 2001.

McCorduck, Ed. Understanding American Football. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Publishing Group, 1998. (mccorduck.net/football)

McSherry, Frank D., Jr., ed. Baseball 3000. New York: Elsevier/Nelson Books, 1981.

Messenger, Christian K. Sport and the Spirit of Play in American Fiction: Hawthorne to Faulkner. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.

Messenger, Christian K. Sport and the Spirit of Play in Contemporary American Fiction. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.

Moody, Ralph. Come on Seabiscuit! Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

Moult, Thomas. Great Stories of Sport. London: Stein, 1931.

Odets, Clifford. Golden Boy. New York: Random House, 1937.

Oriard, M. Dreaming of Heroes: American Sports Fiction, 1868-1980. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1982.

O’Rourke, Frank. The Heavenly World Series: Timeless Baseball Fiction. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2002.

Pressfield, Steven. The Legend of Bagger Vance. New York: HarperTorch, 2000.

Reilly, Rick. Slo-Mo! New York: Doubleday, 1999.

Rosen, Charley. Barney Polan's Game: A Novel of the 1951 College Basketball Scandals. New York: Harvest Books, 1999.

Roth, Philip. The Great American Novel. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Sackler, Howard. The Great White Hope. New York: Bantam, 1968.

Salutin, Rick. Les Canadiens. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1977.

Sandoz, Joli, ed. A Whole Other Ball Game: Women's Literature on Women's Sport. New York: The Noonday Press, 1997.

Sandoz, Joli and Joby Winans, eds. Whatever It Takes: Women on Women’s Sport. New York: Farar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.

Schneider, Jeff. The Fix. Poughkeepsie, NY: Vivisphere Publishing, 2001.

Schulman, Lester, ed. The Random House Book of Sports Stories. New York: Random House, 2000.

Schwed, Peter, and Herbert Warren Wind, eds. Great Stories from the World of Sport. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1958.

Schinto, Jeanne. Show Me a Hero: Great Contemporary Stories about Sports. New York: Persea Books, 1995.

Schulberg, Budd. The Harder They Fall. New York: Random House, 1947.

Shaara, Michael. For the Love of the Game. New York: Ballantine Books, 1999.

Shields, David. Heroes. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.

Sillitoe, Alan. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. New York: Signet, 1959.

Stanton, Joseph. Cardinal Points. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002.

Staudohar, Paul D., ed. Baseball’s Best Short Stories. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1997.

Staudohar, Paul D., ed. Boxing’s Best Short Stories. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1999.

Staudohar, Paul D., ed. Football’s Best Short Stories. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1999.

Staudohar, Paul D., ed. Golf’s Best Short Stories. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1999.

Staudohar, Paul D., ed. Sports Best Short Stories. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2001.

Toole, F. X. Rope Burns. London: Secker & Warburg, 2000.

Tracey, Grant. Parallel Lines and the Hockey Universe. Clifton, VA: Pocol Press, 2003.

Vanderwerken, David L. and Spencer K. Wertz, eds. Sport Inside Out: Readings in Literature and Philosophy. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1985.

Wendel, Tim. Castro's Curveball. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2006.

Wise, Suzanne. Sports Fiction for Adults: An Annotated Bibliography of Novels, Plays, Short Stories, and Poetry with Sporting Settings. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1986.

Wodehouse, P. G. The Golf Omnibus. New York: Gramercy, 1996.

Zamudio, Dan. Catcher in the Wry. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002.