Jackie Robinson - Hardcover

Rampersad, Arnold

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679444955 ISBN 13: 9780679444954

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997

Synopsis

The extraordinary life of Jackie Robinson is illuminated as never before in this full-scale biography by Arnold Rampersad, who was chosen by Jack's widow, Rachel, to tell her husband's story, and was given unprecedented access to his private papers. We are brought closer than we have ever been to the great ballplayer, a man of courage and quality who became a pivotal figure in the areas of race and civil rights.

Born in the rural South, the son of a sharecropper, Robinson was reared in southern California. We see him blossom there as a student-athlete as he struggled against poverty and racism to uphold the beliefs instilled in him by his mother--faith in family, education, America, and God.

We follow Robinson through World War II, when, in the first wave of racial integration in the armed forces, he was commissioned as an officer, then court-martialed after refusing to move to the back of a bus. After he plays in the Negro National League, we watch the opening of an all-American drama as, late in 1945, Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers recognized Jack as the right player to break baseball's color barrier--and the game was forever changed.

Jack's never-before-published letters open up his relationship with his family, especially his wife, Rachel, whom he married just as his perilous venture of integrating baseball began. Her memories are a major resource of the narrative as we learn about the severe harassment Robinson endured from teammates and opponents alike; about death threats and exclusion; about joy and remarkable success. We watch his courageous response to abuse, first as a stoic endurer, then as a fighter who epitomized courage and defiance.

We see his growing friendship with white players like Pee Wee Reese and the black teammates who followed in his footsteps, and his embrace by Brooklyn's fans. We follow his blazing career: 1947, Rookie of the Year; 1949, Most Valuable Player; six pennants in ten seasons, and 1962, induction into the Hall of Fame.

But sports were merely one aspect of his life. We see his business ventures, his leading role in the community, his early support of Martin Luther King Jr., his commitment to the civil rights movement at a crucial stage in its evolution; his controversial associations with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Humphrey, Goldwater, Nelson Rockefeller, and Malcolm X.

Rampersad's magnificent biography leaves us with an indelible image of a principled man who was passionate in his loyalties and opinions: a baseball player who could focus a crowd's attention as no one before or since; an activist at the crossroads of his people's struggle; a dedicated family man whose last years were plagued by illness and tragedy, and who died prematurely at fifty-two. He was a pathfinder, an American hero, and he now has the biography he deserves.

About this title

About the Author

Arnold Rampersad is Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton University, where he is a member of the Department of English and the Program in African-American Studies. His books include the two-volume Life of Langston Hughes and, with the late Arthur Ashe, Days of Grace: A Memoir. In 1991, he was appointed a MacArthur Foundation fellow. He lives with his family in Princeton, New Jersey.

From the Inside Flap

inary life of Jackie Robinson is illuminated as never before in this full-scale biography by Arnold Rampersad, who was chosen by Jack's widow, Rachel, to tell her husband's story, and was given unprecedented access to his private papers. We are brought closer than we have ever been to the great ballplayer, a man of courage and quality who became a pivotal figure in the areas of race and civil rights.

Born in the rural South, the son of a sharecropper, Robinson was reared in southern California. We see him blossom there as a student-athlete as he struggled against poverty and racism to uphold the beliefs instilled in him by his mother--faith in family, education, America, and God.

We follow Robinson through World War II, when, in the first wave of racial integration in the armed forces, he was commissioned as an officer, then court-martialed after refusing to move to the back of a bus. After he plays in the Negro National League, we watch the opening of an all-American drama

Reviews

This considerable book arrives just in time to save the man from his own legend: despite certain limitations, it is a sports story for adults.... Professor Rampersad never suggests that the accident of history which pushed this professional athlete into the forefront to national attention was particularly cruel or ironic, but his tone throughout the book remains so distantly calm and studious as to make us wonder whether he may not be concealing a judgement or a reservation about his subject.

Avoiding the sentimentality surrounding the 50th anniversary of Robinson's major-league debut, Rampersad compellingly projects his life against the backdrop of the persons and institutions that affected him and that he, in turn, helped to change. Jack Roosevelt Robinson's early life in Georgia and California was more or less defined by racial segregation. Tracing Robinson's journey through college, military service in WW II, professional baseball, marriage, fatherhood, and his later careers in business and public service, Rampersad (author of a two-volume biography of Langston Hughes) demonstrates how Robinson's determination was often both his greatest strength and his Achilles' heel. Nowhere was this more obvious than during his brilliant baseball career, where his combativeness occasionally put him at odds with fans, opponents, and even teammates. Robinson's transition from baseball to ``private'' life in 1957 was smooth--the game had left him modestly wealthy and socially well connected. However, he did encounter difficulties during these years. Quick to take to the stump for a cause or a friend, Robinson sometimes clashed with other civil rights and political leaders, including Malcolm X, whose appeals for black separatism frustrated the integrationist pioneer. During the tumult of the '60s, Robinson became estranged from his eldest son, Jackie Jr., who after being wounded in Vietnam, later fell into a cycle of crime and drug dependency. (Jackie eventually recovered and was reconciled with his father, only to die in a motor accident in 1971.) After Robinson's death in 1972, President Richard Nixon, a longtime friend and admirer, hailed him for having ``brought a new human dimension not only to the game of baseball but to every area of American life.'' A former opponent, Yankee catcher Yogi Berra, spoke another kind of truth, about Robinson, both as a ballplayer and as an idealist : ``He could beat you in a lot of ways.'' Somewhat languidly paced but nevertheless gripping, this oustanding biography is in every way worthy of its esteemed subject. (24 pages photos, not seen) (First printing of 200,000; Book-of-the-Month Club selection) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line 50 years ago, and the anniversary celebrations have been numerous. Professional baseball acknowledged his contribution to the game and society in a series of moving early-season ceremonies and by permanently retiring his uniform number. There has also been a clutch of new books about Robinson timed for the anniversary year, including memoirs by family members. Princeton English professor Rampersad, the author of a two-volume life of Langston Hughes, adds to that list with what is certain to become the definitive Robinson biography. Through exhaustive research and dozens of interviews with family members, teammates, business associates, and friends, Rampersad vividly re-creates the life of a man who may have had history thrust upon him by circumstance but who also understood the magnitude of his burden. Those who are at all familiar with Robinson know the bare bones of his story: his postwar signing by legendary Brooklyn Dodger general manager Branch Rickey, the racist atmosphere he was forced to endure as baseball's first black player, his on-field success, and his subsequent career as a businessman and civil rights leader. It's all here but presented in greater detail and with more commentary by those who were present or nearby observers. We also learn much that is new about Robinson's earlier life, including his childhood spent in Pasadena, California, where he developed his extraordinary athletic skills as well as his intolerance for segregationist Jim Crow laws. Rampersad is an evenhanded biographer, and he brings an objectivity to his subject that only enhances Robinson's place in history. We close this remarkable book realizing again that while any number of others, under different circumstances, might have been the first African American to break baseball's color line, few would have been able to carry it off with Robinson's integrity and courage. An essential purchase for public libraries. Wes Lukowsky

Rampersad (literature, Princeton; coauthor, with Arthur Ashe, of Days of Grace, LJ 6/15/93) presents a penetrating characterization and thorough analysis of Jackie Robinson, the first black to play major league baseball. Drawing on personal letters, interviews, research projects, archival materials from the Jackie Robinson Foundation, and input from Robinson's widow, Rachel, he reveals Robinson as a boy, man, athlete, husband, father, pioneer, community leader, businessman, and Civil Rights activist. "Jackie underwent the trauma and the humiliation and the loneliness which comes with being a pilgrim," the author writes. Though well researched, with some vintage photographs, the book lacks standard footnotes and bibliographical references. Still, this work supplements recent biographies by Maury Allen (Great Time Coming, LJ 11/15/94) and Rachel Robinson (Jackie Robinson, LJ 11/1/96). Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.?Edward G. McCormack, Univ. of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast, Long Beach
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679444955
• ISBN 13: 9780679444954
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512