![]() ![]() Hillenbrand gives us a visceral appreciation of that sport as refracted through the tumultuous lives of Seabiscuit and his human companions, while at the same time creating a keenly observed portrait of a Depression-era America bent on escapism and the burgeoning phenomenon of mass-media-marketed celebrity.Īlthough Seabiscuit was descended from the great Man o' War, he was a supremely undistinguished looking racehorse. A contributing editor at Equus magazine and a longtime writer on thoroughbred racing, Ms. In telling the Cinderella story of Seabiscuit and his devoted trainer, owner and jockey, the author, Laura Hillenbrand, has written an absorbing book that stands as the model of sportswriting at its best. If the issue were deferred another week, there would be a civil war between the War Admiral Americans and the Seabiscuit Americans.'' ''People who never saw a horse race in their lives are taking sides. ''The whole country is divided into two camps,'' a 1938 San Francisco Chronicle article read. ![]() ![]() His match that year with his arch rival, War Admiral - which pitted racing fans from the West Coast against racing fans from the East - was one of the most widely followed stories of the year and one of the decade's biggest sports events. A nearly 400-page biography of a horse? Well, Seabiscuit was no ordinary horse: in 1938 he reportedly received more newspaper coverage than Roosevelt, Hitler or Mussolini. ![]()
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