Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jennifer Bernard
On-Sale: September 29, 2009 212.366.2007
jennifer.bernard@us.penguingroup.com
The “Greatest Game” Through the Greatest Perspective…
PERFECT
Don Larsen’s Miraculous World Series Game and the Men Who Made It Happen
by LEW PAPER
In the 105-year history of the Major League Baseball World Series, 606 games have been played, with
1, 212 starting pitchers. Of those, 218 have pitched for 9 innings or more. Only one World Series pitcher
has gone nine full innings and retired 27 batters with zero hits and zero runs. That pitcher is New York Yankee Don Larsen, and his incredible feat on a warm October afternoon was the “greatest moment” in
World Series history according to The New York Times, and the subject of PERFECT: Don Larsen’s Miraculous World Series Game and the Men Who Made it Happen (New American Library Hardcover; September 29; $24.95).
PERFECT is the amazing inning-by-inning breakdown of Game 5 of the 1956 World Series where the New York Yankees were pitted against perennial rivals the Brooklyn Dodgers. There hadn't even been a regular season perfect game in 34 years. These are the stories of the 19 people who had the best seats in the house that October day - the 19 players who actually appeared in the game. Author Lew Paper spent six years researching and interviewing players, managers, reporters, and families of those legendary players who took part in the historic match-up.
In a remarkable telling of both the game, and of these players' stories, author Lew Paper has created a unique contribution to baseball literature, and the story of baseball in mid-20th century. Some were famous, some obscure, but all were together in Yankee Stadium on that one day to witness and take part in history. PERFECT also provides another perspective into some of the most explosive issues that continue to prompt debate among baseball fans, such as then St. Louis Cardinal Enos Slaughter’s slide into and spiking of Jackie Robinson and whether it was intentional or an accident.
From racial and ethnic discrimination to less than ideal traveling conditions, small salaries that required players to have jobs in the off season, and the broken marriages that resulted from careers and lives spent on the road. PERFECT is an affecting and meticulously researched celebration of the players who witnessed and contributed to the only perfect game in World Series history.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lew Paper is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Harvard Law School and holds a master’s degree in law from Georgetown University Law School. He has held a variety of positions in the public and private sectors, including a fellowship with Georgetown University Law School’s Institute of Public Interest Representation, Legislative Counsel to Senator Gaylord Nelson in the United States Senate, and Associate General Counsel at the Federal Communications Commission. He is the author of John F. Kennedy: The Promise and The Performance; Brandeis: An Intimate Biography; Empire: William S. Paley and The making of CBS; and Deadly Risks. His articles and book reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and The American Scholar. He currently practices law in Washington, DC.
PERFECT: Don Larsen’s Miraculous World Series Game and the Men Who Made It Happen
Lew Paper
New American Library
On-Sale: September 29, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-451-22819-2
$24.95
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Download the press releaseAuthor Lew Paper
Lew Paper is the author of the forthcoming Perfect: Don Larsen’s Miraculous World Series Game and the Men Who Made It Happen (New American Library September 29, 2009). He is also the author of four previous books – John F. Kennedy: The Promise and the Performance, Brandeis: An Intimate Biography, Empire: William S. Paley and the Making of CBS, and Deadly Risks (a novel). His articles and book reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and The American Scholar. Lew is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Harvard Law School and holds a masters in law degree from Georgetown University. He has held a variety of positions in the public and private sectors, including a Fellowship with Georgetown University Law School’s Institute for Public Interest Representation, Legislative Counsel to Senator Gaylord Nelson in the United States Senate, and Associate General Counsel at the Federal Communications Commission. He currently practices law in Washington, DC.
Other books by Lew Paper
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Deadly Risks Drawing upon his considerable research for The Promise and the Performance, Lew Paper turns to fiction to provide a spell-binding story which posits a theory of how and why John F. Kennedy was assassinated -- all of which is consistent with the known facts of that unforgettable tragedy. Kelly Roberts, a young woman enjoying an idyllic life in a Washington, DC suburb, is confronted with a frightening dilemma after her father dies and then her brother is killed on an African safari. It is presented in a note from her father, a former CIA official in the Kennedy administration, who explains that he was involved in JFK's assassination and that he wants to make amends by leaving a method for future investigators to find the truth. However, he is concerned that some of his surviving co-conspirators will not want the truth to come out and suggests that the note be given to the JFK library after his children's deaths. But Kelly cannot leave well enough alone and strives to uncover what really happened -- and what role her father played in it. In a gripping plot reminiscent of John Grisham's The Pelican Brief, the book unfolds with a tale of intrigue and passion that resonates with the ring of authenticity. Read selected reviews... |
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Empire: William S Paley and the Making of CBS This is the first biography to provide a detailed exploration of how Bill Paley took a fledgling radio network in 1927and built it into one of the major media empires of the twentieth century. Lew Paper relies upon a variety of primary source materials, including interviews with existing and former CBS employees (including legendary CBS President Frank Stanton and ousted CEO Tom Wyman), reporters and other obervers (like David Halberstam), former CBS entertainers (like Jackie Gleason and George Burns), Paley's former wife, and Paley himself. Paper explains how Paley used his considerable family wealth, talent often developed on the rival NBC network, and business ingenuity in a single-minded effort to maneuver CBS into a powerhouse position -- often without regard to the consequences to his employees and his own family. It is the insightful story of a paradoxical man whose ultimate goal was to enjoy life to the fullest. Read selected reviews... |
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Brandeis: An Intimate Biography of One of America's Truly Great Supreme Court Justices This is the first biography of former Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis to provide insight into the man behind the legend. Lew Paper draws upon sources that had previously remained unavailable to Brandeis biographers: the newly-released letters and other papers of his daughter Susan, interviews with all of his surviving law clerks, and interviews with family members, including his daughter Elizabeth and his grandchildren. The portrait that emerges is surprising and uplifting -- a man with many idiosyncracies (he hated cars) who had an abiding faith in man's ability to control his destiny and a sensitivity (reflected in his response to his wife's nervous breakdown) that belied the image of the hard-nosed "People's Lawyer" which he had nurtured over many years through his law practice in Boston. Read selected reviews... |
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The Promise and the Performance: The Leadership of John F. Kennedy Relying on criteria developed from an analysis of twentieth century presidents, Lew Paper evaluates John Kennedy's presidency -- and, more specifically, whether his performance in the White House matched the promise he brought to the office in 1961. To support his evaluation, Paper draws upon oral histories and documents made available by the John F. Kennedy Library, material from other libraries around the country, and interviews with reporters, observers, and former administration officials, including Ben Bradlee from The Washington Post, James Reston from The New York Times, and White House advisors like Mike Feldman, Lee White, and Arthur Shlesinger. The analysis provides a new perspective on the major events of the Kennedy era -- including the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Steel crisis, the Test Ban Treaty with Russia, the civil rights struggles, and of course the war in Vietnam. The hardback book includes a Foreword from the renonwed historian James MacGregor Burns, and the paperback edition includes a Special Foreword from former Senator Bill Bradley. Read selected reviews... |
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