Jane Leavy (born December 26, 1951) is an American

sportswriter Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

and feature writer, formerly with ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. She writes primarily about baseball.

Biography

Jane Leavy was born December 26, 1951. She is originally from

Roslyn, New York Roslyn ( ) is a village in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. It is the Greater Roslyn area's anchor community. The population was 2,770 at the 2010 census. History Ro ...

. She graduated from

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

in 1974 and from

Columbia University School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism sc ...

in 1976. She is the author of the 1990 comic novel ''Squeeze Play'', which was called "the best novel ever written about baseball" by ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

''. She also wrote a best-selling 2002 biography ''Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy'' about the great Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher

Sandy Koufax Sanford Koufax (; born Sanford Braun; December 30, 1935) is an American former left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played his entire career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1955 to 1966. He has been hailed as one of t ...

. In 2010, she published ''The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood'', an extensive chronicle of Mantle's off-field behavior. The book was based on interviews she had with the late Yankee slugger. Excerpts from the book have been published in ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' and the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

''. ''The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created,'' was published by Harper on October 16, 2018. It was named one of the top ten biographies/memoirs for the fall of 2018 by ''Publishers Weekly''. Leavy lives in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

She has a house in

Truro, Massachusetts Truro is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, comprising two villages: Truro and North Truro. Located slightly more than 100 miles (160 km) by road from Boston, it is a summer vacation community just south of the nor ...

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

. She has two children, Nick (born 1985) and Emma (born 1988) Isakoff.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leavy, Jane 1951 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American women novelists Barnard College alumni Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni American sportswriters People from Long Island Jewish American novelists Women sportswriters Novelists from New York (state) 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American biographers 21st-century American biographers American women biographers 21st-century American Jews