Roger Angell
Roger Angell (born
September 19,
1920), is a unique figure in the world of American letters, having made a career by writing about
baseball, the game called America's national pastime. The stepson of renowned essayist
E. B. White, who exerted a lasting influence on his writing, Angell has been called "the best baseball writer ever" for his stylish, intelligent prose.
Angell's earliest published works were pieces of short fiction and personal narratives. He first wrote professionally about baseball in 1962, when he was invited by
The New Yorker — where his mother Katharine Sergeant Angell and stepfather E. B. White were editors, from the 1920s through the 1970s — to travel to
Florida to write a few pieces about spring training.
Since then, Angell has translated a lifetime passion for the sport into a steady stream of elegantly written essays, most of which were originally published in
The New Yorker, where he has worked as an editor since 1956. Many of these essays have been collected in a series of critically acclaimed, best-selling books:
The Summer Game (1972, ISBN 0670681644)
Five Seasons (1977, ISBN 0671227432)
Late Innings (1982, ISBN 0671425676)
Season Ticket (1988, ISBN 0395381657)
Once More Around the Park (1991, ISBN 0345367375)
Game Time (2003, ISBN 0151008248)
Let Me Finish (2006, ISBN 01511013500)
Game Time, a recent collection, is edited by
Steve Kettmann and features an introduction by the novelist
Richard Ford.
