Seabiscuit: An American Legend
Laura Hillenbrand
There's an alternate cover edition here Seabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail. Three men changed Seabiscuit’s fortunes:Charles Howard was a onetime bicycle repairman who introduced the automobile to the western United States and became an overnight millionaire. When he needed a trainer for his new racehorses, he hired Tom Smith, a mysterious mustang breaker from the Colorado plains. Smith urged Howard to buy Seabiscuit for a bargain-basement price, then hired as his jockey Red Pollard, a failed boxer who was blind in one eye, half-crippled, and prone to quoting passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Over four years, these unlikely partners survived a phenomenal run of bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform Seabiscuit from a neurotic, pathologically indolent also-ran into an American sports icon. Author Laura Hillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story, one that proves life is a horse race.From the Hardcover edition.
No posts yet
Kick off the convo with a theory, question, musing, or update
Your rating:
At times, however, I felt like I was missing essential information to understand the import of a race, particularly vocabulary terms that were used without sufficient explanation. I couldn't always follow what made two horses distinct or what made a particular moment remarkable.
I also would have loved a bit more information on the culture of horse racing beyond the barn and the track. The book started with an incredible reveal that Seabiscuit merited more newspaper column lines in 1938 than his contemporary world leaders (Roosevelt, Hitler, Mussolini!), but Hillenbrand neglected to describe the universal love for Seabiscuit, focusing instead on his--incredibly interesting--immediate surroundings. Ultimately, though, I was fascinated by the stories Hillenbrand added about jockeys, betting, the auto industry, and other horses, and I will be sharing some of those snippets for a long time to come.
0This is one of my favorite books of all time. I've read it every other year or so since publication and every time I take away something new.
At its base level, this is a story about three men and a horse and the Great Depression. If you were to expand upon that you could also say it's a story about misfits and underdogs, the "American Spirit," hardwork, bootstraps, perseverance, etc. This is, in a way, a total Dad Book(tm), the type of bestseller you purchase for your father out of desperation on December 23rd, thinking that the themes of horse racing and middle aged men persevering in the 1930s will appeal to his Dad-ness.
But it's not just a Dad Book (tm), it's a damn good book about three men and a horse and the Great Depression. It's a book that will make you feel things about horse racing. You'll grow to admire these three vastly different men and feel totally on their side as they strive to win some horse racing competitions that, prior to picking up this book, you've never heard of and probably won't remember outside of the context of the book. You'll realize that you, weirdly, will have horse-rivalry, because fuck War Admiral and his prestige. You're definitely going to laugh and maybe even cry about a horse that has been dead since 1947.
Anyways. This book is very good and very readable, and I recommend both the print copy and audio version.
0
© 2024 Pagebound