Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero

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Leigh Montville's Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero is the definitive biography that baseball fans have been waiting for. Montville, who was a sports columnist for the Boston Globe and then a senior writer for Sports Illustrated is an admitted Red Sox and Williams fanatic, and his passion for his hero rings clearly from every page, along with his clear baseball expertise. But Montville does not hide Williams's flaws. The young Williams was temperamental and justified bad behavior with batting prowess that could excuse just about anything. Quick to anger, "the Kid" had a gift for foul language, too.

Montville's study offers insides accounts of Williams's obsessive development as a hitter and his constant struggle to perfect his swing (mistakenly called "natural" by sports writers with little understanding of his extensive preparation). The chapter on 1941, perhaps the greatest year in his career, draws on research and interviews never before published. Montville lets whole passages stand uninterrupted--from Williams's manager, Joe Cronin, from his teammate Dom DiMaggio, and from other players and baseball officials who tell the story of Williams's quest for a .400 batting average. The tale of the final day of the season (when he refused to be benched and went six for eight in a double header to jump from .39955 to his final total, .406) is as pulse-pounding as any thriller.

Alongside its essential focus on Williams's baseball life, the book also delves into his military service during both World War II and the Korean War, his passion for sports fishing, and his commitment to helping children through the Jimmy Fund. Finally, Montville devotes a chapter to the controversy after Williams's death, exposing the back-and-forth among Williams's heirs in the bizarre decision to freeze his body in a cryogenic warehouse in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Montville's biography makes a good case that Williams was, if not the greatest hitter ever to play the game, certainly among them. For his focused, scientific approach to hitting, Williams is unmatched in the history of the game. His life, marred perhaps by a temper and occasional immaturity that soured his reputation in Boston, is one of true sports greatness. Early in the book, Montville argues that Williams is less appreciated today than he might be because he played out most of his 19-year career in the era before televised highlights. But with Montville's efforts to capture first-hand accounts of Williams's achievements, The Splendid Splinter's legacy is assured. --Patrick O'Kelley

Book Description

He was The Kid. The Splendid Splinter. Teddy Ballgame. One of the greatest figures of his generation, and arguably the greatest baseball hitter of all time. But what made Ted Williams a legend – and a lightning rod for controversy in life and in death? What motivated him to interrupt his Hall of Fame career twice to serve his country as a fighter pilot; to embrace his fans while tangling with the media; to retreat from the limelight whenever possible into his solitary love of fishing; and to become the most famous man ever to have his body cryogenically frozen after his death? New York Times bestselling author Leigh Montville, who wrote the celebrated Sports Illustrated obituary of Ted Williams, now delivers an intimate, riveting account of this extraordinary life.

Still a gangly teenager when he stepped into a Boston Red Sox uniform in 1939, Williams’s boisterous personality and penchant for towering home runs earned him adoring admirers--the fans--and venomous critics--the sportswriters. In 1941, the entire country followed Williams's stunning .406 season, a record that has not been touched in over six decades. At the pinnacle of his prime, Williams left Boston to train and serve as a fighter pilot in World War II, missing three full years of baseball. He was back in 1946, dominating the sport alongside teammates Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Bobby Doerr. But Williams left baseball again in 1952 to fight in Korea, where he flew thirty-nine combat missions—crash-landing his flaming, smoke-filled plane, in one famous episode.

Ted Willams's personal life was equally colorful. His attraction to women (and their attraction to him) was a constant. He was married and divorced three times and he fathered two daughters and a son. He was one of corporate America's first modern spokesmen, and he remained, nearly into his eighties, a fiercely devoted fisherman. With his son, John Henry Williams, he devoted his final years to the sports memorabilia business, even as illness overtook him. And in death, controversy and public outcry followed Williams and the disagreements between his children over the decision to have his body preserved for future resuscitation in a cryonics facility--a fate, many argue, Williams never wanted.

With unmatched verve and passion, and drawing upon hundreds of interviews, acclaimed best-selling author Leigh Montville brings to life Ted Williams's superb triumphs, lonely tragedies, and intensely colorful personality, in a biography that is fitting of an American hero and legend.

Customer Reviews:

Terrific Book.......2007-08-01

I have been reading quite a few baseball biographies over the past 4-5 years and this one was absolutely and by far the most thoughtful, the most thorough, and simply the best. And frankly, I was not even a Ted Williams fan before I picked it up. I knew very little about him and didn't remember him, having been born in 1961. But the portrait Montville draws is remarkably detailed and nuanced. This book goes beyond the person and gives glimpses of the times.

In life, he waited on the wrong pitches.......2007-07-30

A 2007 summer reading list mini review

Ted Williams had a simple hitting philosophy: get a good pitch to hit. In Leigh Montville's riveting biography of the splendid splinter we learn about his legendary patience at the plate. We infer that patience translated in his life long love of sports fishing. Ultimately, we do not see that same patience in his personal life: swinging and missing in 3 of 4 marriages, not connecting in fatherhood much better.

Mistakes in baseball especially for a career .344 hitter with over 500 homeruns don't have many residual effects. Relational miscues are less static and often lead to more consequences. Montville does a good job chronicling how the controversy that embroiled Williams in death may have developed from these earlier errors.

A "Jekyll & Hyde" of a Biography.......2006-11-08

Leigh Montville's biography presented quite the conundrum for this reader. Quite extensive (weighing in at just over 500 pages) the book is crammed full of wonderful anectdotes that give a great look at both the positive and negative aspects of Ted Williams the man and player. It also contains more information on his post-baseball life than most biographies do. What bothered me about the book though was the numerous mistakes in key dates from Williams' life. Montville's book lists the wrong month for Williams' birth, the wrong date for his first homer, his first 2-homer game, opening day 1942, and even the wrong date for his wedding to Doris Soule (just to name a few). If you are only looking for a book that brings you a closer look at Ted Williams personality, then this is the book for you, but, if you are a stickler for details, then perhaps stick with the earlier biographies by Ed Linn and Michael Seidel which do not suffer from so very many errors.

Ted Williams: The Biography of and American Hero.......2006-11-04

This is a great book about a great ball player. If you are a baseball fan you will love this book.

Solid Job - Excellent Biography of the Complete Person.......2006-07-16

I enjoyed the book and would buy it again. Having said that the book only rates 4 stars because the author spends too much time - in my opinion - on non baseball issues after Ted Williams had retired.

Here is my rational. This is a detailed biography written by the former Boston Globe sports columnist Leigh Montville using a combination of many interviews and lots of background research. He puts it all together with a nice selection of photos to produce a detailed and comprehensive biography of Ted Williams. It is about 500 pages long and remarkably fair. Although the book is 500 pages long the author dedicates only about 175 pages or 1/3 to his actual playing career. The rest covers a lot of detail on some crazy subjects such as the "Refrigeration" and his other marriages or many fishing trips. I think the book would have been better with more baseball and less post baseball, but that is my opinion that it deserves just 4 stars for him as a player but maybe 5 stars as a "personal" biography covering his whole life. But I bought the book as a baseball fan so as a baseball book it gets 4 stars.

I have read and posted reviews on other baseball books from David Cone to Pete Rose, Babe Ruth and DiMaggio, and on the Oakland A's, Cooperstown, and the Cal Ripkin's book on baseball skills recently published. This book is similar in quality and scope of the DiMaggio book "The Hero's Life" - a book that I thought was excellent and sparked controversy about DiMaggio's personal life - and interestingly covers the same time period including that famous 1941 season when Williams broke 400 in Boston while DiMaggio had the 56 game streak with the Yankees.

The book is somewhat similar to the DiMaggio book - in that it gives a fairly well researched and informative picture on and off the field. There is much to discuss about the book such as his exhibition game with Babe Ruth, the 1946 world series, his days in the marines air corps, Korea, etc. But again, the book covers a lot more than baseball. It is 500 pages long and by page 260 the vote is in and he is on his way to Cooperstown, so it covers him to the end of his life in detail with about half on his post playing career. His actual MLB playing is covered in about one third of the book and for myself those sections where he is playing for Boston are the most interesting parts of the book, and I skipped a couple of late chapters, I had read enough, and did not need to read 35 pages on the "Refrigeration" episode at the end of the book and similar stories about fishing or other marriages.

In comparing him to DiMaggio it is clear that Williams was more of a loner on the field than even the reserved DiMaggio, no matter what either did off the field. Williams has a complex and thin skinned personality. He takes time to help many young fans and sick children and for that he is loved and admired. He is bigger than life. Unfortunately, and even though in some ways Williams is likeable in the book, Williams reminds me of some modern players that are often surly around the press, sometimes poison in the dressing room, and seem more interested in their personal contract than the win loss record of their own team. We are told in the book that sometimes it was clear that team's winning came second to his personal performance in determining his post game mood in the clubhouse. But taking that to the next step and saying that is why they never won a World Series is not 100% clear since Boston did not seem to have the player roster depth of other teams like the Yankees, and Williams had an elbow injury during the 46 World Series - the best Boston shot of winning that championship when he played - and when he had his so called "choke". So it is impossible to make a definitive conclusion from the book. In any case, he is one of the best hitters to have ever played, and if he had been a Yankee I am sure he would have been on many winning teams.

Quite good and I learned a lot about Ted Williams and baseball, but I skipped most of the last half, the personal trivia.

Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero

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Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero
Leigh Montville
Manufacturer: RH Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero

ASIN: 0739333437
Release Date: 2006-07-18

Book Description

Average customer rating:

Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero
Leigh Montville
Manufacturer: Random House Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Leigh Montville on Ted Williams
Leigh Montville
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download

Book Description

The critically acclaimed memoir of a forbidden love affair in communist China

"An important work."-San Francisco Chronicle

"Riveting."-Kirkus Reviews

"This memoir is a must-read."-San Jose Mercury News

Now in paperback, here is the stunning true tale of a remarkable woman trained as an elite soldier in the Chinese army, her forbidden love for an American, and her seemingly impossible escape-with his help-from the nation to which she had pledged her life. An astonishing testament to the enduring resilience of love and the human spirit in the face of even the most oppressive, hopeless conditions, Daughter of China offers a compelling look at life inside the rigid walls of Communist China, revealing in fascinating detail Meihong Xu's inculcation into the system-a process so effective that she would willingly betray a friend or family member to prove her loyalty. Written with clear-eyed candor and stark eloquence, Daughter of China is at once a timeless, deeply moving story of a prohibited love affair and a dramatic depiction of life under Chinese Communism.

Customer Reviews:

A book I will always remember.......2007-09-23

China, 1963: in the small village of Lishi, Meihong Xu is born. It is a difficult birth, and even in her adult life she carries the impressions of her grandmother's fingers on her forehead. Confined to a small, unheated room years later, Meihong remembers Lishi.

In this, her beautiful memior, Meihong tells the story of her life, and through her life she tells the story of China. Through the flowing narrative stories are scattered. They are the stories of how her grandmother lost a daughter; of how her mother's sister came to be known as the Red Aunt; of how Meihong first fell in love. It is a book that encompases every aspect of life anywhere on the planet. Sweet, sad, sometimes comical; always knowing that things could have been different, yet never full of regret--- This is the story of the Daughter of China, and it is beautiful.

Well-written 1st person account of life as a PLA soldier, but not a love story.......2006-12-17

This book was well written in the sense of giving the reader an in-depth look at how the PLA works (or worked since this was written years after Mao Zedong). The order of the book was a bit confusing. It starts with the author in prison and then goes into a history of her village. Then, she describes her interrogation and then back to her past and how she became a PLA soldier. Yet, despite this minor annoyance, I couldn't put the book down.

However, it is not a love story. I never got the sense that Meihong Xu was ever in love with Larry Engelmann. The reader has to keep in mind that their marriage was ending at the time the book was written, so that could be a reason why the "love" was downplayed.

Overall, I would recommend reading the book to get a first person perspective on what life is like as a PLA soldier, but not because this is a love story.

Daughter of China.......2005-04-04

I found this little gem of a book while on vacation in England. I have a fasination for Chinese fiction and non friction. This book engrossed me from the moment I started reading it. The love story between the characters is amazing. The best part is that it is a true story. The love that is shared between the two characters is something only found in fiction or if one is lucky enough once in a life time. I highly recommend this book. This book also gives a realistic view China, the good, the bad and the ugly. I adored this book. It is a must read!

You must read for yourself............2004-05-14

I started reading this book because my sister recommended it. By the time I finished it, I was deeply touched, and at some instances even felt like I was there. The story of survival, deception, betrayal, and of course love tangled many strong emotions through me as I read about the world of Communism, the strive to survive. Excellent book, compelling read to those who's been to China.

Meihong just another intelligent selfish young woman.......2003-06-20

After reading this book, I can summarize it this way: a poignant story of betrayal and false love revolving around contemporary Chinese history. Meihong's story about her family and her background are fascinating. It gave us a vivid picture of life under Mao's reign of terror.

However, I think almost all readers including me feel the same way: Meihong is just another clever young woman using a foreigner to achieve her ambitions. There are countless young Chinese women in recent years using the same tactics as Meihong to get out of China. Meihong is so far the only person brazen enough to write a book about it. She is indeed very clever. I recall the San Jose Mercury News covered her story last year. She eventually got an MBA and started her own company - doing business with China nevertheless.

I advise all foreigners who travel to China to be careful and learn from Larry's experiences.

Book Description

What happens when a dictator wins absolute power and isolates a nation from the outside world? In a nightmare of political theory stretched to madness and come to life, North Korea's Kim Jong Il made himself into a living god, surrounded by lies and flattery and beyond criticism. As over two million of his subjects starved to death, Kim Jong Il roamed between palaces staffed by beautiful girls and stocked with expensive international delicacies. Outside, the steel mills shut down, the trains stopped running, the power went out, and the hospitals ran out of medicine. When the population threatened to revolt, Kim imposed a reign of terror, deceived the United Nations, and plundered the country's dwindling resources to become a nuclear power. Now this tiny bankrupt nation is using her nuclear capability to blackmail the United States. Veteran correspondent Jasper Becker takes us inside one of the most secretive countries in the world, exposing the internal chaos, blind faith, rampant corruption, and terrifying cruelty of its rulers. Becker details the vain efforts to change North Korea by actors inside and outside the country and the dangers this highly volatile country continues to pose. This unique land, ruled by one family's megalomania and paranoia, seems destined to survive and linger on, a menace to its own people and to the rest of the world. But should the nations of the world allow this regime to survive? That's the question with which this book concludes.

Customer Reviews:

One-Sided and Ignorant Look at North Korea.......2007-08-29

Becker has written what is essentially an incredibly long-winded diatribe that is more riddled with assumptions and condemnations than fact. In spite of his years of experience as a foreign correspondent -- or perhaps because of it -- Becker demonstrates an almost utter lack of understanding about North Korea as a country, government and about North Koreans as a people. As he does not speak Korean, his research obviously did not include any Korean primary sources--except for those from North Korean defectors, who are notoriously conservative. It's certainly true that the North Korean government has dug itself into economic collapse and that millions of North Koreans are suffering. It's also true that North Koreans are watched over and sent away (most certainly to prison camps) if they misbehave or are considered disloyal. However, it is one things to report the problems of a country, the corruption in its government, and the suffering of its people from a balanced and well-researched perspective and quite another to lambaste that country with accusations when you neither have the background nor have done the research to warrant doing so. Readers who wish to learn about North Korea would be well-advised to pass on Becker's book and find one written by a Korea specialist who actually knows something about the country.

Great Insight, Great Read..........2007-01-11

Firstly, buy the book, you won't be dissapointed.
Although it suffers a little from some editing quirks, it's a great "can't-put-it-down" read. Especially if you want a quick condensed history of the North Korean regime and the absolute "Looney Tunes" that run the country.
If there is even an ounce of truth in any of this book then we need to afraid, very afraid!

Plenty of facts, little on organization.......2006-12-01

I'd like to emphasize the previous reviewer's comments. This is perhaps one of the most poorly organized books I have ever read -- fiction or non-fiction. It amazes me how this book got through the publisher's editor(s). The poor organization isn't limited to the chapters, but within each chapter, too. The author jumps from various interviews and first-hand accounts without any logical organization. Within a chapter, the book also jumps from the current president, Kim Jong Il, to his father back and forth multiple times. To me, chapters do not seem organized based on interviewee or time. Each chapter has a title, but things like "food" and "the military" are so interleaved, I think it was a poor choice for chapter headers.

However, the information about North Korea is enlightening, whether or not you have knowledge about the country. Since almost every sentence (except the first chapter) is a fact, and not every sentence is followed by a cite, expect some facts to be under dispute. With so little information coming out of NK, we have to take what we can get. In summary, if you don't mind the disorganization, this is worth a read. Just don't be surprised if you occasionally flip back a few pages thinking, "I've read this name before...".

Interesting but disorganized work.......2006-07-18

Jasper Becker's "Rogue Regime" was the first book I read about North Korea. It's certainly interesting, filling us in on lots of fun tidbits about Kim Jong Il: that he sleeps with young girls and then dumps them, builds himself palaces, and refuses to cut rations to anyone working on his nuclear weapons. But the book is extremely irritating in that it clearly has not been properly edited: as someone else pointed out, there are plenty of factual mistakes, stylistic mistakes, and at least one grammar or punctuation mistake for every five pages. The chapters are also annoyingly disorganized -- Becker jumps from a pointless hypothetical war between the United States and North Korea to a chapter about the history of the Kims, to a chapter about the North Korean nukes, and so on. I'm especially surprised at the inefficiency of such a publisher as Oxford -- laughingly, their best defense is to say that simply forgot to have it edited.

All in all, however, many people will argue that the book deserves a once through -- particularly for experts on North Korea. Personally, I'm glad I simply got it from the library.

Dismal View of a Dismal Empire.......2006-07-15

Jasper Becker is a bit of a pessimist. But when it comes to North Korea, It's pretty hard not to be a pessimist. When it comes to North Korea, I guess what you need to do is try to get as much information as possible from those who have been there, and then put that together with the history we are all more or less aware of.

I think the chief value of this book is that it gives a good quick rundown of the major events that led to the current bleakness. This is useful, especially if you are not well read on the subject, and need to get up to speed quickly. Becker starts with a grisly description of the "hunt" for refugees along the North Korean border with China, where local peasants are paid a bounty to bring in escapees from the nightmare of Kim Jong ill's prison.

I remember a YWAM missionary describing to me several years ago how people would call up to him when he was crossing the bridge into North Korea, begging him to drop money. The people in the northeastern part of the country have had a very tough time of it in recent years. It is hard to know exactly what is going on now, but I did see a Swedish missionary from North Korea interviewed on CCTV 9 (Beijing) a few months ago (January 2006), and he indicated that the folks in Pyongyang seem to be taking home more consumer electronics, and such items as indicate increased disposable income. So what is North Korea actually like right now?

Jasper Becker's book doesn't really answer that question. The book's primary value, as mentioned, is that it provides a useful outline of the history since the founding of the religious cult that is North Korea. You will certainly not want to stop here. Philip Short's biography of Mao also gives good insight, as well as older works such as Manchester's biography of MacArthur (American Caesar), as well as MacArthur's own "Reminiscences." I think it's kinda good to have an idea how it happened that one country became two...but if you feel somewhat lost, and just need to get a quick overview, then I think this book will be helpful.

Book Description

More than twenty years have passed since Walter Auffenberg's monumental THE BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY OF THE KOMODO MONITOR. In the intervening years the populations of Komodo dragons--native only to a handful of islands in southeast Indonesia--have dwindled, sparking intensive conservation efforts. During the last two decades new information about these formidable predators has emerged, and the most important findings are clearly presented here.

A memoir from Auffenberg and his son Kurt is followed by the latest information on Komodo dragon biology, ecology, population distribution, and behavior. The second part of the book is dedicated to step-by-step management and conservation techniques, both for wild and captive dragons. This successful model is a useful template for the conservation of other endangered species for, as Kurt and Walter Auffenberg note, "The species may well indeed survive in the wild for generations to come while countless other organisms are lost."

Customer Reviews:

Evolution, population, distribution, habitat, & ecology.......2003-04-19

Collaboratively compiled and edited by James B. Murphy, Claudio Ciofi, Colomba de La Panouse, and Trooper Walsh, Komodo Dragons: Biology And Conservation is an impressive and informative collection of deftly presented essays by a variety of knowledgeable contributors about the evolution, population, distribution, habitat, ecology, of the great and unique carnivorous reptiles known as Komodo Dragons. A scattering of black-and-white photographs enhance these fascinating scientific analyses. Komodo Dragons is enthusiastically recommended reading and a seminal contribution to academic and professional Zoological Studies reference collections.

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