John R. Tunis

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John Roberts Tunis (December 7, 1889 - February 4, 1975) was a well-known and prolific author of juvenile sports fiction. [1][1] Tunis's work was unusual in that many of his books included socio-political themes,[2][2] including war (notably World War II in his novel, "His Enemy, His Friend") and racism.

Tunis was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of a Unitarian minister (who died when John was six years old). In 1911 he graduated from Harvard, where he was a member of the tennis team, and went on to study law at Boston University. In World War I he served in the U.S. Army in France, rising to second lieutenant. Prior to his fiction career, Tunis reported on sports for the New York Evening Post and later covered tennis for NBC radio, including the first U.S. broadcast from Wimbledon. [3] [3]

Nine of Tunis's novels were about baseball [4], most of them dealing with the triumphs and travails of the Brooklyn Dodgers. His most famous creation was Roy Tucker, a pitching phenom who injured his elbow and then fought his way back into baseball as an outfielder, and Tunis surrounded Tucker with a host of supporting players - "Bones" Hathaway, "Razzle" Nugent, "Fat Stuff" Foster - who vividly evoked baseball's golden age. It has been said that Tunis's baseball books are "not only the best sports fiction for 10-to-14 year-olds ever written, they are among the best sports fiction - period." [5][4] Pete Hamill picked The Kid From Tomkinsville, the first Tunis book to feature Tucker, as one of his five favorite sports novels, writing that "virtually every sportswriter I know remembers reading it as a boy." [6] [5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ University of Texas at Arlington, Guide to Juvenile Baseball Books
  2. ^ Johnson, J: "Baseball Has More to Teach Us than Sport", Desert Morning News, October 28, 2006<
  3. ^ Playing Hardball for the Love of the Game
  4. ^ Head Butler
  5. ^ "In play: A legendary newspaperman picks five sports novels that really hit home," Pete Hamill, Salon
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