James S. Hirsch is an American journalist and author who has written about sports, race, and American culture. He was a reporter for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', and his first book was the best-selling ''Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of

Rubin Carter Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (May 6, 1937 – April 20, 2014) was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer, wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for murder, until released following a petition of habeas corpus after almost 20 years in prison. In ...

''. Hirsch has also written ''Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy'', ''Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship That Saved Two POWs in Vietnam'', and ''Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes''. His biography of

Willie Mays Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...

, released in February 2010, describes how the

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

phenom became an instant sensation with the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

in the 1950s, was the headliner in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

's expansion to California, and played an important but underappreciated role in the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

. Hirsch, a graduate of the

Missouri School of Journalism The Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia is one of the oldest formal journalism schools in the world. The school provides academic education and practical training in all areas of journalism and strategic comm ...

and the

Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs (or LBJ School of Public Affairs) is a graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin that was founded in 1970 to offer training in public policy analysis and administration for students that ar ...

, lives in the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

area.

Bibliography

* ''Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter'' Mariner Books. * ''Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy''

Mariner Books Mariner Books, originally an imprint of HMH Books, was established in 1997 as a publisher of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry in trade paperback. Mariner is also the publisher of the Harvest backlist, formerly published by Harcourt Brace/Harcou ...

. * ''Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship That Saved Two POWs in Vietnam'' Houghton Mifflin. * ''Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes, America's Biggest Epidemic'' Houghton Mifflin. * ''Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend'' New York: Scribner. * '' Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy (with

Mike Love Michael Edward Love (born March 15, 1941) is an American singer and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys with his cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson and their friend Al Jardine. Characterized by his nasal tenor and occasional bass-bari ...

) ''

External links

''Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend'' Official Website

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, James S. American male writers Living people Missouri School of Journalism alumni Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs alumni Year of birth missing (living people)