Sporting lives: metaphor and myth in American sports autobiographies

175 Pages·2008·1.47 MB·English

by  James W. Pipkin

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Sporting
Lives
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SPORTS AND AMERICAN CULTURE SERIES
Bruce Clayton, Editor
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Sporting
Lives
• • • •
METAPHOR AND MYTH
IN AMERICAN SPORTS
AU TO B I O G R A P H I E S
JAMES W. PIPKIN
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI PRESS
COLUMBIA AND LONDON
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Copyright © 2008 by
The Curators of the University of Missouri
University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri 65201
Printed and bound in the United States of America
All rights reserved
5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 09 08
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pipkin, James W., 1944–
Sporting lives : metaphor and myth in American sports autobiographies / James W.
Pipkin.
p. cm. — (Sports and American culture series)
Summary: “Examines autobiographies by athletes such as Wilt Chamberlain, Babe
Ruth, Martina Navratilova, and Dennis Rodman, and analyzes common themes and
recurring patterns in the accounts of their lives and sporting experiences”—Provided
by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8262-1779-0 (alk. paper)
1. Athletes—United States—Biography. 2. Autobiographies—United States.
3. Sports—United States—Biography. I. Title.
GV697.A1P475 2008
796.092'273—dc22
[B]
2007042564
This paper meets the requirements of the
American National Standard for Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48, 1984.
Jacket Designer: Aaron Lueders
Page Designer: Stephanie Foley
Typesetter: BookComp, Inc.
Printer and binder: The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group
Typefaces: Optima and Palatino
The University of Missouri Press acknowledges the generous contributions provided
by the Martha Gano Houstoun Endowment through the Department of English at the
University of Houston, and by Dean John Antel of the College of Liberal Arts and
Social Sciences, University of Houston, toward the publication of this book.
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For Roberta
AND
In memory of my mother,
Kate Jackson Pipkin
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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Contents
Acknowledgments • • • ix
Introduction: Inside the Lines • • • 1
1 • • • “The Echoing Green” • • • 19
2 • • • Body Songs • • • 44
3 • • • Magic
The Performing Body • • • 76
4 • • • The End of Autumn • • • 97
5 • • • “Something Old,
Something New,
Something Borrowed,
Something Blue”
Dennis Rodman and the
Contemporary Athlete
as Postmodern Celebrity • • • 127
Bibliography • • • 145
Index • • • 157
vii
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• • • • • • • • • • • • Acknowledgments
want to thank Wyman Herendeen, the chairman of the Depart-
ment of English at the University of Houston, for the administra-
Itive support he provided for me when I was researching and
writing this book. He and his predecessors as chair, John McNamara
and Terrell Dixon, have worked hard to foster faculty scholarship
and still emphasize the importance of commitment to teaching.
I also want to acknowledge grant support from the department’s
Martha Gano Houstoun Endowment and from Dean John Antel of
the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
I am particularly grateful to my colleagues William Monroe,
Robert Phillips, and James Pickering, who read my manuscript and
offered thoughtful comments and suggestions, along with support
and encouragement.
My colleagues and friends, Lawrence Curry, Jr., and John Lien-
hard, and my former student and assistant editor for a university
press, Thomas Fenske, provided advice and encouragement at im-
portant stages in the writing of the book.
I hope that other writers who submit their manuscripts to a press
receive the kind of support and generosity that Beverly Jarrett, the di-
rector and editor-in-chief of the University of Missouri Press, and
Bruce Clayton, the editor of the Press’s Sports and American Culture
Series, have given to me. I also thank John Brenner for his close and
thoughtful copyediting of the manuscript.
I feel a much deeper gratitude to my wife and colleague, Roberta
Weldon, and my children, Emily and Michael. Roberta always found
that perfect balance of critical intelligence and supportive love that I
needed, even while writing her own book and being a wonderful
mother to our children.
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