August 3, 2010

Hockey by Gerald Eskenazi

I once referred to the following title as "obscure" simply because I, a proud hockey book collector, had never seen it.


It turns out I was wrong. The book is written by famous New York Times sportswriter Gerald Eskenazi, and he told me just how important the book was in it's time (1969):
"When it came out, it sold about 20,000 copies at a (then) pricey $12.95. It was, in fact, the first really good-looking, and serious, big picture book on the sport. Got big play in the Gazette, the Globe and Mail, The New York Times--and a host of radio and television appearances. That led to five other hockey books in quick succession. The book came out just as hockey was bouncing into the 20th Century, a bit late. Expansion was on its way (a few years later, I updated the book into "The Fastest Sport")."

I have yet to see the book in person. The book features the photography of Ken Regan.

Eskenazi wrote several other hockey books, including A Thinking Man's Guide To Pro Hockey, Hockey Is My Life (Phil Esposito's 1972 autobiography) and The Derek Sanderson Nobody Knows (1973).

2 comments:

Rob Matic,  August 3, 2010 at 10:38 PM  

I actually have a beat up hard cover version of this book that my wife has been telling me to get rid of. I will never part with it!

Kent Morgan August 13, 2010 at 8:21 PM  

I just checked my library as I thought I had a copy. It's in very good condition. It has a dust jacket as well as a cover with same large photo as the DJ. Except for a few pages of colour photos at the front, the rest are black and white.

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