Roger Kahn | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1927-10-31)October 31, 1927 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | February 6, 2020(2020-02-06) (aged 92) Mamaroneck, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | American |
| Notable works | The Boys of Summer |
Roger Kahn (October 31, 1927 – February 6, 2020) was an American journalist and author, best known for his 1972 baseball bookThe Boys of Summer.
Roger Kahn was born inBrooklyn, New York, on October 31, 1927, to Olga (née Rockow) and Gordon Jacques Kahn, a teacher and editor.[1] His family wasJewish. He attended Froebel Academy, a prep school, thenErasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.[citation needed] He attendedNew York University from 1944–1947.[1]
In 2004, he was named as the fourth James H. Ottaway Sr. Visiting Professor of Journalism atSUNY New Paltz.[2] He was a lecturer atYale University,Princeton University, andColumbia University.[1]
Kahn began his newspaper career in 1948, when he took a job ascopy boy for theNew York Herald Tribune. A keenBrooklyn Dodgers fan, he reported on their games over the 1952 and 1953 seasons. He became sports editor forNewsweek in 1956, and editor-at-large of theSaturday Evening Post in 1963. His best-known book isThe Boys of Summer (1972), which examines his relationship with his father as seen through the prism of their shared affection for the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 2002, aSports Illustrated panel placedThe Boys of Summer second on a list of "The Top 100 Sports Books of All Time".[3]
In addition toThe Boys of Summer, Kahn wrote books such asGood Enough to Dream, a chronicle of his year as the owner of aminor league baseball franchise;The Era 1947–57, an examination of the decade during which the three New York clubs – the Dodgers,Yankees andGiants – dominatedMajor League Baseball; andMemories of Summer, a look back at his youth and early career, plus extended pieces on New York baseball legendsWillie Mays andMickey Mantle. He also wrote a biography of the heavyweight boxing championJack Dempsey, entitledA Flame of Pure Fire.[4]
Kahn's 2006 bookInto My Own is amemoir describing his friendships withRobert Frost,Jackie Robinson,Pee Wee Reese,Eugene McCarthy, and, in its last chapter titledRescuing Roger, focuses on his son who predeceased him, Roger Laurence Kahn, who committed suicide viacarbon monoxide poisoning in 1987. It covers the younger Kahn'sbipolar disorder, heroin addiction, and time he spent with the educatorMichael DeSisto at theDeSisto School;[5][6] Andrew Ervin wrote inThe Washington Post that the book "proves that Kahn's not only a great baseball writer but also something rarer: a great writer whose subject happens to be baseball."[7]
Kahn cited[where?] as his journalistic influences,Stanley Woodward,John Lardner, andRed Smith.
Kahn married Joan Rappaport in 1950; they divorced in 1963.[10] Their first child, daughter Elizabeth, died one day after her birth in 1954.[11] Their son, Gordon Jacques, was born in 1957.[12] Kahn married his second wife, Alice Lippincott Russell, in 1963; they divorced in 1974. They had a son, Roger Laurence, in 1964, and a daughter, Alissa Avril, in 1967. Their son, Roger, committed suicide in 1987.[13][12]
Kahn lived in theHudson Valley community ofStone Ridge, New York, with his third wife, Katharine Colt Johnson, apsychotherapist, whom he married in 1989.[13][14]
Kahn died in Sarah Newman nursing home inMamaroneck, New York, in February 2020, at the age of 92.[15]
Ruttman, Larry (2013). "Roger Kahn: Author of the Classic Baseball BookThe Boys of Summer".American Jews and America's Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball. Lincoln, Nebraska and London, England: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 113–123.ISBN 978-0-8032-6475-5. This chapter in Ruttman's history, based on September 30, 2007 and January 31, 2008 interviews with Kahn conducted for the book, discusses Kahn's American, Jewish, baseball, and life experiences from youth to the present.
