Seabiscuit: An American Legend
Laura Hillenbrand<
Ballantine Books
Nonfiction, Animals/History/Sports
Themes: Equines
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Description
One of America’s all-time greatest sports legends wasn’t a human, but a horse. Seabiscuit rose from nowhere to become the greatest news sensation of the Depression, surviving controversy, injury, and setbacks to earn his place in history. He didn’t get there by himself. The millionaire auto magnate Charles Howard, the former frontiersman trainer Tom Smith, and the hot-headed, oversized jockey “Red” Pollard found in the little crooked-legged horse – and in each other – a greatness they could never have reached alone.
Review
I'm not normally a sports fan, but the recent movie Seabiscuit piqued my interest. (That, and I was given a copy of this book for the holidays.) This is a well-written book, with enough drama to hold my interest between tangents. The author does her best to cut through the legends and lies that have circulated over the years, researching the people, the horses, the sport, and the era to tell the true story of the Seabiscuit phenomenon. The end results recreate the era in which the little horse lived and thrived nicely. If you're comparing the book to the movie, you'll notice certain liberties were taken in the translation to the big screen, but the heart of the story stays the same.