Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Seabiscuit: An American Legend
by Laura Hillenbrand

Seabiscuit: An American Legend
List Price: $15.95
Our Price: $0.01
You Save: $15.94 (100%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Laura Hillenbrand
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2002-03-26
ISBN: 0449005615
Number of pages: 399
Publisher: Ballantine Books

Book Reviews of Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Book Review: Ah, Seabiscuit we need you now
Summary: 5 Stars

This is a wonderful book about an unbelievable champion - the kind we need today in America. A champion that reaches into the hearts of the people, unifies us and inspires us to prevail. The men who believed in Seabiscuit were not perfect, nor was Seabiscuit but they all managed to be imperfect winners. The writing itself might be a bit flourished but it is certainly well-researched and the story is entertaining told. Hillebrand has captured the ironies, truths, the agony and ecstasy of horse-racing and life itself as well. This one will make you cheer.

Summary of Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Seabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail. Three men changed Seabiscuit's fortunes:

Charles Howard was a onetime bicycle repairman who introduced the automobile to the western United States and became an overnight millionaire. When he needed a trainer for his new racehorses, he hired Tom Smith, a mysterious mustang breaker from the Colorado plains. Smith urged Howard to buy Seabiscuit for a bargain-basement price, then hired as his jockey Red Pollard, a failed boxer who was blind in one eye, half-crippled, and prone to quoting passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Over four years, these unlikely partners survived a phenomenal run of bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform Seabiscuit from a neurotic, pathologically indolent also-ran into an American sports icon.

Author Laura Hillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story, one that proves life is a horse race.


From the Hardcover edition.
He didn't look like much. With his smallish stature, knobby knees, and slightly crooked forelegs, he looked more like a cow pony than a thoroughbred. But looks aren't everything; his quality, an admirer once wrote, "was mostly in his heart." Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of the horse who became a cultural icon in Seabiscuit: An American Legend.

Seabiscuit rose to prominence with the help of an unlikely triumvirate: owner Charles Howard, an automobile baron who once declared that "the day of the horse is past"; trainer Tom Smith, a man who "had cultivated an almost mystical communication with horses"; and jockey Red Pollard, who was down on his luck when he charmed a then-surly horse with his calm demeanor and a sugar cube. Hillenbrand details the ups and downs of "team Seabiscuit," from early training sessions to record-breaking victories, and from serious injury to "Horse of the Year"--as well as the Biscuit's fabled rivalry with War Admiral. She also describes the world of horseracing in the 1930s, from the snobbery of Eastern journalists regarding Western horses and public fascination with the great thoroughbreds to the jockeys' torturous weight-loss regimens, including saunas in rubber suits, strong purgatives, even tapeworms.

Along the way, Hillenbrand paints wonderful images: tears in Tom Smith's eyes as his hero, legendary trainer James Fitzsimmons, asked to hold Seabiscuit's bridle while the horse was saddled; critically injured Red Pollard, whose chest was crushed in a racing accident a few weeks before, listening to the San Antonio Handicap from his hospital bed, cheering "Get going, Biscuit! Get 'em, you old devil!"; Seabiscuit happily posing for photographers for several minutes on end; other horses refusing to work out with Seabiscuit because he teased and taunted them with his blistering speed.

Though sometimes her prose takes on a distinctly purple hue ("His history had the ethereal quality of hoofprints in windblown snow"; "The California sunlight had the pewter cast of a declining season"), Hillenbrand has crafted a delightful book. Wire to wire, Seabiscuit is a winner. Highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney

General Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in General Books
The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972 ImageThe Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972
by William Manchester
Bantam; Published: 1984-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $86.99
Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II ImageSlavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
by Douglas A. Blackmon
Anchor; Published: 2009-01-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.53
Price in other shops: $16.95
At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much ImageAt Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much
HighBridge Company; Published: 2007-06-04; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $5.83
Price in other shops: $19.95
Titanic: An Illustrated History ImageTitanic: An Illustrated History
by Donald Lynch
Hyperion Books; Published: 1995-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.50
Price in other shops: $39.95
Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement ImageWalking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement
by John Lewis, Michael D'Orso
Harvest Books; Published: 1999-10-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.85
Price in other shops: $16.00
Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 ImageLost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13
by Jeffrey Kluger, James Lovell
Houghton Mifflin; Published: 1994-09-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $52.91
Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum ImageShip Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum
by Ed O'Donnell
Broadway; Published: 2004-06-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.75
Price in other shops: $14.95
Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers ImageLittle Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers
by Ralph Moody
Bison Books; Published: 1991-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: $14.95
A Man on the Moon ImageA Man on the Moon
by Andrew Chaikin
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1998-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops: $18.00
Seabiscuit ImageSeabiscuit
by Laura Hillenbrand
Random House Audio; Published: 2003-06-05; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $12.87
Price in other shops: $29.95
Similar Books and other products
To Kill a Mockingbird ImageTo Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 1988-10-11; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops: $7.99
Seabiscuit (American Experience) ImageSeabiscuit (American Experience)
Release date: 2003-06-03; DVD
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops: $19.98
The Great Gatsby ImageThe Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Scribner; Published: 1999-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.90
Price in other shops: $14.00
The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story ImageThe Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story
by Richard Preston
Anchor; Published: 1999-06-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.54
Price in other shops: $14.95
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream ImageFriday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
by H. G. Bissinger
Da Capo Press; Published: 2000-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.97
Price in other shops: $15.95
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster ImageInto Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
by Jon Krakauer
Anchor; Published: 1999-10-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.49
Price in other shops: $14.95
Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty In The United States ImageDead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty In The United States
by Helen Prejean
Vintage; Published: 1994-05-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.20
Price in other shops: $13.95
Seabiscuit, the Rest of the Story ImageSeabiscuit, the Rest of the Story
by William H. Nichols
Tate Publishing & Enterprises; Published: 2007-06-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.15
Price in other shops: $12.99
Seabiscuit - The Lost Documentary ImageSeabiscuit - The Lost Documentary
Release date: 2003-11-11; DVD
Best price: $4.22
Price in other shops: $9.96
Seabiscuit (Widescreen Edition) ImageSeabiscuit (Widescreen Edition)
Release date: 2003-12-16; DVD
Best price: $2.95
Price in other shops: $12.98