Sports Best Short Stories

Fiery crashes, gracious losses, and the art of the bluff pepper the pages of this winning anthology of 24 short stories on a variety of sports by some of the world's greatest writers. The lineup includes Pulitzer Prize-winners E. Annie Proulx, John Cheever, Howard Nemerov, and Paul Horgan, as well as favourites such as Joyce Carol Oates, Jack London, W. Somerset Maugham, and Arthur Conan Doyle. Among the usual suspects of boxers, pitchers, and shankers, some uncommon players emerge -- a money-winning fighting dog becomes a ribbon-winning show dog; Ecuadorian bullfights drive an American prizefighter to madness; and Simon Templar, alias the Saint, teaches some crooks a lesson in a few hands of poker. Tales of baseball and golf; car racing and horse racing; swimming, hunting, and chess portray themes of love, loss, danger, and ambition as they express the passion for sport in all its forms.