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True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson
True is a probing, richly-detailed, unique biography of Jackie Robinson, one of baseball's―and America's―most significant figures.
For players, fans, managers, and executives, Jackie Robinson remains baseball's singular figure, the person who most profoundly extended, and continues to extend, the reach of the game. Beyond Ruth. Beyond Clemente. Beyond Aaron. Beyond the heroes of today. Now, a half-century since Robinson's death, letters come to his widow, Rachel, by the score. But Robinson's impact extended far beyond baseball: he opened the door for Black Americans to participate in other sports, and was a national figure who spoke and wrote eloquently about inequality.
True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson by Kostya Kennedy is an unconventional biography, focusing on four transformative years in Robinson's athletic and public life: 1946, his first year playing in the essentially all-white minor leagues for the Montreal Royals; 1949, when he won the Most Valuable Player Award in his third season as a Brooklyn Dodger; 1956, his final season in major league baseball, when he played valiantly despite his increasing health struggles; and 1972, the year of his untimely death. Through it all, Robinson remained true to the effort and the mission, true to his convictions and contradictions.
Kennedy examines each of these years through details not reported in previous biographies, bringing them to life in vivid prose and through interviews with fans and players who witnessed his impact, as well as with Robinson's surviving family. These four crucial years offer a unique vision of Robinson as a player, a father and husband, and a civil rights hero―a new window on a complex man, tied to the 50th anniversary of his passing and the 75th anniversary of his professional baseball debut.
For players, fans, managers, and executives, Jackie Robinson remains baseball's singular figure, the person who most profoundly extended, and continues to extend, the reach of the game. Beyond Ruth. Beyond Clemente. Beyond Aaron. Beyond the heroes of today. Now, a half-century since Robinson's death, letters come to his widow, Rachel, by the score. But Robinson's impact extended far beyond baseball: he opened the door for Black Americans to participate in other sports, and was a national figure who spoke and wrote eloquently about inequality.
True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson by Kostya Kennedy is an unconventional biography, focusing on four transformative years in Robinson's athletic and public life: 1946, his first year playing in the essentially all-white minor leagues for the Montreal Royals; 1949, when he won the Most Valuable Player Award in his third season as a Brooklyn Dodger; 1956, his final season in major league baseball, when he played valiantly despite his increasing health struggles; and 1972, the year of his untimely death. Through it all, Robinson remained true to the effort and the mission, true to his convictions and contradictions.
Kennedy examines each of these years through details not reported in previous biographies, bringing them to life in vivid prose and through interviews with fans and players who witnessed his impact, as well as with Robinson's surviving family. These four crucial years offer a unique vision of Robinson as a player, a father and husband, and a civil rights hero―a new window on a complex man, tied to the 50th anniversary of his passing and the 75th anniversary of his professional baseball debut.
Editorial Reviews
"This is a marvelous addition to the library on the ever-important, ever-enigmatic Jackie Robinson, one of the towering figures in the Civil Rights Movement. Kennedy has given us four remarkable ‘snapshots' of Jackie at this most brave and vulnerable moment."
-- Ken Burns, filmmaker
"True is a captivating reminder of Jackie Robinson's greatness not only as a baseball player and trailblazer, but also as a fearless activist for the equal rights and fair treatment of all people. Reading it, I said to myself time and again: "I wish I could have met him."
--John Grisham
"In these latter days, when Jackie Robinson's titanic sports legacy can be expressed in more nuanced human terms, and in terms of the struggle for human rights, Kennedy's restrained, patient, immensely readable biography might well be where a younger generation -- grown curious about the great Robinson -- can commence."
--Richard Ford
"There has been so much written and said about Jackie Robinson that one might think that there is nothing left to say. But Kostya Kennedy's True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson not only offers an innovative approach to biographical writing but fresh insights and information about Robinson. Even what we thought we knew is cast in a new context. An absolutely fascinating and compelling read. A truly masterful book."
--Gerald Early, author of A Level Playing Field: African American Athletes and the Republic of Sports
"Once again, the excellent Kostya Kennedy has found a unique way of vivifying the life of one of baseball's most imposing figures. But, unlike his previous biographies of Joe DiMaggio and Pete Rose, this one is devoted to someone whose impact on the game -- and on our national culture -- has only intensified since his playing days. True befits the greatness of the man whose life it chronicles."
--Daniel Okrent, author of Nine Innings, Last Call, Great Fortune (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History), and The Guarded Gate
"The 75th anniversary of the day Jackie Robinson became the first Black man to play in the Major Leagues is the perfect time to remember a great baseball player and an even greater American. Kostya Kennedy's True tells Robinson's story beautifully, a sweeping narrative rich in ...
-- Ken Burns, filmmaker
"True is a captivating reminder of Jackie Robinson's greatness not only as a baseball player and trailblazer, but also as a fearless activist for the equal rights and fair treatment of all people. Reading it, I said to myself time and again: "I wish I could have met him."
--John Grisham
"In these latter days, when Jackie Robinson's titanic sports legacy can be expressed in more nuanced human terms, and in terms of the struggle for human rights, Kennedy's restrained, patient, immensely readable biography might well be where a younger generation -- grown curious about the great Robinson -- can commence."
--Richard Ford
"There has been so much written and said about Jackie Robinson that one might think that there is nothing left to say. But Kostya Kennedy's True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson not only offers an innovative approach to biographical writing but fresh insights and information about Robinson. Even what we thought we knew is cast in a new context. An absolutely fascinating and compelling read. A truly masterful book."
--Gerald Early, author of A Level Playing Field: African American Athletes and the Republic of Sports
"Once again, the excellent Kostya Kennedy has found a unique way of vivifying the life of one of baseball's most imposing figures. But, unlike his previous biographies of Joe DiMaggio and Pete Rose, this one is devoted to someone whose impact on the game -- and on our national culture -- has only intensified since his playing days. True befits the greatness of the man whose life it chronicles."
--Daniel Okrent, author of Nine Innings, Last Call, Great Fortune (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History), and The Guarded Gate
"The 75th anniversary of the day Jackie Robinson became the first Black man to play in the Major Leagues is the perfect time to remember a great baseball player and an even greater American. Kostya Kennedy's True tells Robinson's story beautifully, a sweeping narrative rich in ...
Readers Top Reviews
Rick Shaq GoldsteinM
As a third generation Brooklyn boy… born to Brooklyn Dodger loving parents…who for the first ten years of marriage before having children spent almost every weekend watching our beloved “BUMS” at Ebbets Field… before I got to go to my first Brooklyn Dodger game… my Dad sat me on his lap in front of our minuscule TV screen that was embedded in a giant box… to watch our “Bums” on TV. I will never forget when my beloved Dad said: “Rich… I’ve been to hundreds of games… and the most exciting player I have ever seen… is Jackie Robinson!” And so my life and love of Jackie and the Dodgers exploded into full eternal bloom… and on September 30, 1956 I went with my Dad to Ebbets Field to see MY HEROES… JACKIE AND THE BOYS OF SUMMER! They had to win the last game of the season (AND THEY DID!) against the Pirates to win the 1956 National League pennant… by one game. With Big Newk pitching… “ The Duke of Flatbush” hit two home-runs to win the National League Home Run crown… little Sandy Amoros who was the fielding hero of game seven of the 1955 World Series that led to OUR BUMS BEING WORLD CHAMPIONS… AND THE ETERNAL WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR MISERY WAS FINALLY ENDED… hit two home-runs … AND I SAW MY HERO JACKIE ROBINSON HIT A HOMERUN IN THE LAST REGULAR SEASON GAME HE WOULD EVER PLAY! From that moment on for the next sixty-five-plus-years… I have followed every meaningful movement and breath of Jackie’s life and legacy… read every meaningful book and article… watched every movie and documentary… and more importantly… educated and infused my son… and my grandchildren… in the miracle of Jackie Robinson. So fully have I dedicated myself to that task… that even my Granddaughters have always worn NUMBER 42 on every athletic team they’ve been on. When my son would get my girls psyched up before each of their softball games before they left the house… by playing CENTERFIELD… by John Fogerty… and I would hear them simultaneously yell in their beautiful young girl voices “THERE’S JACKIE!”… I would get tears in my eyes and my heart would go back to Brooklyn! (By the way… my youngest Granddaughter’s middle name is BROOKLYN!) I share all of this with potential readers to instill the greatest confidence in potential readers… that I hold Jackie so high in my life and my very soul… I would never review anything regarding Jackie without holding it to the highest bar possible… no free passes or “intentional-walks” from me. It seems to me… that Jackie and Abe Lincoln have one modern phenomena in common… it seems every other week there’s a new book released on them… and it comes to a point… as far as I can tell… that Jackie and Old Abe haven’t done anything new in quite a while. This book “True”… tries to take a new approach. It doesn’t even attempt to tell Robinson’s whole life story. Doesn’t zero in on his innumerable accomplishments… heartbreaks… ...
