Into My Own: The Remarkable People and Events That Shaped a Life

by Roger Kahn

Book Overview

Roger Kahn is one of America's foremost sportswriters. After successful seasons as a newspaperman and magazine writer, he burst onto the national scene in 1972 with his memorable bestseller,The Boys of Summer,a work that went beyond sports and captured?the minds and hearts of millions across the country. Now in his eighth decade, Kahn has again written a book for the hearts and minds of his readers. Chronicling his own life,Into My Ownis Kahn's reflection...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312338139
• ISBN13: 9780312338138
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 1.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.7" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Roger Kahn does it again

I can't put Roger Kahn's book down. His writing style is personal yet detached, and he is as unkind to himself at times as he is to others. He is in his eighties now, and reviews the people and events that impacted his life. He has not grown softer with age, and still has his signature sharpness. His sportswriting and journalistic career are the backdrops from which he travels through life, but all of us on our own pathways can benefit from reading his struggles and observations.

A Memorable Memoir

The author of the classic The Boys of Summer reveals his life story via a select few main influences, from his journalistic mentor Stanley Woodward to Jackie Robinson and finally to his late son, Roger, Jr. Books like these often provide glimpses into lives we know mostly from a public non-intimate perspective. In Into My Own, we get a deeper revelation about the heroism of Jackie Robinson as the first black player in major league baseball as well as insight into his full humanity. The same can be said for all the other protagonists in Kahn's memoir, including his first wife. There is some sadness that lingers from the narrative, particularly the lack of closeness between Kahn and his mother, and especially the passing of his son, but there are also moments of triumph and joy in everyday life.

A touching memoir

Roger Kahn is one of the greatest sportswriters of the century, and in this memoir he does what all great sportswriters do--bring the readers into the story. Although this is a memoir, Kahn focuses not on himself (which is in itself refreshing), but on the people he loved and worked with. The first chapter is as much about the Herald Tribute as it is editor Stanley Woodward, who taught Kahn his craft. As Kahn moves on professionally we get to know Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson and Robert Frost. Even when Kahn exposes his deepest feelings in the heartwrenching chapter describing the gradual deterioration of his son, the story focuses on young Roger. This is really an elegant, moving book that everyone should read even if they've never heard of the Brooklyn Dodgers or the Herald Tribune.

A Book of Heartfelt Sincerity

The English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson once wrote, "I am a part of all that I have met." Roger Kahn has provided us with a heartfelt tribute on those individuals who have influenced him throughout his adult life. Stanley Woodword, his mentor at the New York Herald Tribune, teammates Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson on the Brooklyn Dodgers, poet Robert Frost, polititian Eugene McCarthy, and his late son Roger Laurence Kahn are all written about in a way that author Roger Kahn can use his skill as a writer to bring these people who have special meaning to him to life. Anecdotes not found in other baseball books are included here such as Dodger pitcher Orel Hershier's kindness to Roger's late son, Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley sending a note of warning to the author when Kahn's late wife, Joan, had her nose broken by a batted ball while sitting in the stands, Jackie Robinson suppressing anger and quietly telling a teammate to deal the cards when pitcher Hugh Casey described what folks in the south used to do when good luck was needed. Kahn interviewing Robert Frost with the poet calmly describing his son's suicide little knowing that he, himself, would have to face the same tribulation lurking in the future. We all have people who have influenced our life in a positive manner, and Roger Kahn's sincerity fills the book on those who have touched his life. This is a book that will appeal to anyone who enjoys good writing whether you are familiar with Roger Kahn's previous books or not.

An touching, yet fascinating memoir

Roger Kahn has been writing about sports and other topics for more than half a century, but it was only with THE BOYS OF SUMMER, his watershed account of the Brooklyn Dodgers, that he became a household name and a standardbearer for similar endeavors. The product of an intellectual New York home, Kahn grew into a curious, if not exactly academically motivated, young man. School was tolerated, not embraced, until his father arranged an interview for him with the Herald Tribune. Thus began a long career in journalism, writing about other people and issues. With INTO MY OWN, he invites the reader into a personal world, focusing on several individuals who were influential in his life and work. Among these are Stanley Woodward, his boss, mentor and friend, who challenged him to be not just another sportswriting hack. Kahn looks back fondly on his salad days as a young copyboy who broke into the ranks of the ink-stained wretches, earning more increasingly important assignments until he became the Dodgers' beat reporter. Since the Brooklyn team was his ticket to middle-aged fame, it is fitting that two of the key members of the team receive significant attention: Harold "Pee Wee" Reese and Jackie Robinson. Reese, the shortstop and captain, was a Southerner who literally embraced the African-American Robinson in full view of hate-spewing racists, thereby setting an example of gentility, cooperation, tolerance and friendship. Robinson was a more fiery personality and gave Kahn the opportunity to learn about the difficulties of being a black man in America on several levels. These relationships lasted long after the players had retired. Kahn was more than a one-trick pony, however; he also wrote about "serious" subjects, such as politics and his Jewish heritage (THE PASSIONATE PEOPLE). He also recalls relationships with the likes of Eugene McCarthy and the poet Robert Frost. The most touching chapter, however, is painfully personal: the difficult life and premature death of his son, Roger Laurence, a suicide at 23. Roger L. was the product of a "broken home" following the divorce between Kahn and his second wife, Alice. The author does not mince words as he writes about their tenuous relationship, which deteriorated when his son was quite young. Despite numerous therapists and private schools (including a controversial boarding school), Roger L. sank deeper into bipolar problems, much to his father's helpless distress. --- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan