His Ownself: A Semi-Memoir Hardcover – Deckle Edge Author: Visit Amazon's Dan Jenkins Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0385532253 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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From Booklist
Acclaimed sportswriter Jenkins is still typing away at 84, and now, at long last, he’s written a memoir. The Jenkins byline first appeared in the Fort Worth Press when the author was in college, and in the sixtysomething years since then, his journalism credits have included Sports Illustrated, Playboy, and Golf Digest, where he still files a monthly column. And, of course, there have been many books, including the classic, Semi-Tough (1972). Jenkins tells his story in the same raucous, anecdote-rich, politically incorrect style that has defined his writing all these years. Despite his workload, Jenkins always found time for what he calls sitting around and hanging out, and much of this account reads like a homage to some of the country’s fabled watering holes (Toots Shor’s, P. J. Clarke’s, et al.). Between beverages, however, there was time for sports, especially on Jenkins’ two favorite beats, golf (63 consecutive Masters!) and college football (Life is just one Texas-OU game after another with fun in between). Anyone who has followed sports from the mid-twentieth century onward will relish the opportunity to relive the great moments with a guy who was there more than anyone else. --Bill Ott
About the Author
Dan Jenkins is one of America's most acclaimed sportswriters as well as a bestselling novelist. A native Texan, he has spent a lifetime at the typewriter and computer. He might best be known for his twenty-four years of stories in
Sports Illustrated and now
Golf Digest. Three of his bestselling novels,
Semi-Tough,
Dead Solid Perfect, and
Baja Oklahoma, were made into movies. His sportswriting has won him many awards. In 2012 he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame—one of only three writers to be honored thus far—and was given the PEN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing. He is also the 2013 winner of the Red Smith Award, the highest honor in his profession.
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- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday (March 4, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385532253
- ISBN-13: 978-0385532259
- Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 14.7 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
The closing lines of Dan Jenkins’ memoir say it all: “True friends are a priceless commodity in this world, and I’ve been blessed with many. And there are other things intended: a vitality of existence, a hopeful view of life, and a tender attitude about love. After all, Billy Clyde won the game and got the girl—and so did I.”
This conclusion summarizes the gist of His Ownself. DJ’s memoir is a story of friends, of family life, of journalism, novelistic fiction and romance, but principally it is a story about the vitality of existence. It is a story about Paschal High School in Fort Worth and TCU, a story about golf and football and those who write about it for a living. Dan Jenkins has written about all of that, both as a journalist and novelist (and now as a memoirist) and readers of his novelistic writing will already know how his personal background and journalistic career intersect and intertwine with his fiction.
There is such a thing as a ‘Dan Jenkins book’ and whether it be fiction or non-fiction, it is always delightful. Add His Ownself to the list. It is, indeed, a memoir rather than an autobiography, but it triumphs as a memoir because DJ knows/knew such interesting people, had such interesting experiences and writes about both in such an engaging way. You will not turn to this book expecting a step by step, monthly account of his life. The overall outlines are clear, but much of the material is conceived thematically and expressed anecdotally. This works because the anecdotes are so interesting and expressed in the pure Jenkins voice.
DJ is incapable of being dull, but the stories he tells are enlivened further when they concern such individuals as Ben Hogan, David Merrick, Henry Luce and Agatha Christie.
HIS OWNSELF: A SEMI-MEMOIR owes its title to Dan Jenkins’ most well known character, Billy Clyde Puckett, former stud-horse running back featured in SEMI-TOUGH and LIFE ITS OWNSELF.
Jenkins is a treasure, the last of his generation of sportswriters. Sportswriters whose prose sang, who didn’t take themselves or the games and contests they covered too serious, who were part of sports milieu devoid of corporations. Jenkins unique spot in this pantheon is that he is funny. Laugh out loud funny. Three buddies of mine and I nearly died while driving up Highway 395 listening to YOU GOTTA PLAY HURT…we were laughing so hard we almost drove the car off the road.
A SEMI-MEMOIR is also funny. If you are looking for a traditional autobiography you can stop here. It ain’t. It is more of a rambling overview.
Jenkins wrote for a couple of Texas newspapers before being recruited to Sports Illustrated to cover the college football scene. He eventually got the back page. (His protagonist in YOU GOTTA PLAY HURT writes the back page for a thinly disguised SI.) In covering the great sporting events Jenkins, ever irrepressible, makes no bones about his true loves: college football, especially Texas Christian University, and golf.
Jenkins’ golf hero is Ben Hogan, another Texas boy. For Jenkins the Golden Age of golf was as the mantle was passed from Hogan to Arnold Palmer to Jack Nicklaus. He does not hide his disdain for one Tiger Woods, going as far as to reproduce his Golf Digest column “Nice (Not) Knowing You” in its entirety. “…spoiled, pampered, hidden, guarded, orchestrated, and entitled.” And that’s the nice stuff!
One my favorite anecdotes in the book features Pearl, a waitress in a Texas diner.
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