Roger Kahn
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Roger Kahn (born October 13, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York) is one of America's most prominent writers about sport - especially baseball.
His classic 1972 memoir, The Boys of Summer, examines his relationship with his father seen through the prism of their shared affection for the Brooklyn Dodgers, a team Mr. Kahn would cover as a young reporter for the New York Herald Tribune. The first part of the book consists of recollections of Kahn's two seasons (1952-53) as a Dodger beat writer, coinciding with the peak of the Jackie Robinson era in Brooklyn, when Robinson - by now established as a major star and a leader of the Dodgers - still had to confront racism on and off the field. Kahn's father, Gordon Kahn, a radio-program producer, died shortly after the end of the 1953 World Series between the Dodgers and Yankees, acting as a metaphor for both ending his youth and his entry into a more cynical adulthood. Despite the cynicism around him, including the move of the Dodgers to Los Angeles after the 1957 season, Kahn never lost his affection for the Dodger players he knew, nor they for him.
The second part of the book consists of his interviews with thirteen of that period's Dodgers between 1968 and 1971: Robinson, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Billy Cox, Carl Furillo, Preacher Roe, Carl Erskine, Joe Black, Clem Labine, Andy Pafko and George Shuba.
Kahn later worked as a general-assignment magazine writer and has excelled in writing about non-sporting topics as well. But, as an author, his work on baseball ranks among the best of his time. In addition to The Boys of Summer, Kahn wrote books such as Good Enough to Dream, a chronicle of his year as the owner of a minor league baseball franchise; The Era 1947-57, an examination of the decade during which the three New York clubs - the Dodgers, Yankees and Giants - dominated Major League Baseball; and Memories of Summer, a look back at his youth and early career, plus extended pieces on New York baseball legends Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. His acclaimed biography of the great heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Dempsey, A Flame of Pure Fire, is under development as a major motion picture.
Kahn's latest book, Into My Own, (publication June 2006) is a memoir describing friendships with Robert Frost, Jackie Robinson. Pee Wee Reese, Eugene McCarthy, and his late son, Roger Laurence Kahn, who suffered from bipolar disorder and died by his own hand in 1987. Kahn details his experiences with Michael DeSisto, and The DeSisto School and how that negatively impacted his son Roger's life.
Mr. Kahn lives in the Hudson Valley community of Stone Ridge, N. Y., with his wife, Katharine Colt Johnson, a psychotherapist. He was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame on April 30, 2006. On that occasion Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig wrote, "Roger is an icon in our sport." Dave Anderson, the Pulitzer-Prize winning sports columnist of The New York Times, added: "Anyone who has ever read any of Roger's vast collection of writing knows only too well that he is not merely one of America's great sportswriters, but one of America's great writers period."
