Roger Kahn facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Roger Kahn
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| Born | October 31, 1927 Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. |
| Died | February 6, 2020 (aged 92) Mamaroneck, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | American |
| Notable works | The Boys of Summer |
Roger Kahn was an American author who lived from 1927 to 2020. He is most famous for his 1972 book, The Boys of Summer, which was all about baseball.
Contents
About Roger Kahn
Roger Kahn was born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 31, 1927. His mother was Olga Rockow, and his father was Gordon Jacques Kahn, who worked as a teacher and editor.
Roger went to Froebel Academy, which was a special prep school. After that, he attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. He then studied at New York University from 1944 to 1947.
In 2004, he became a visiting professor of journalism at SUNY New Paltz. He also gave lectures at other famous universities like Yale University, Princeton University, and Columbia University.
Roger Kahn's Writing Career
Roger Kahn started his career in newspapers in 1948. He began as a copy boy for the New York Herald Tribune. This job helped him learn how newspapers work.
He was a big fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. He reported on their games during the 1952 and 1953 seasons. Later, he became the sports editor for Newsweek magazine in 1956. In 1963, he became an editor-at-large for Saturday Evening Post.
His Most Famous Book
Kahn's most well-known book is The Boys of Summer, published in 1972. This book explores his relationship with his father. It uses their shared love for the Brooklyn Dodgers as a way to tell their story.
In 2002, a group of experts at Sports Illustrated magazine ranked The Boys of Summer as the second-best sports book ever written. It was placed on their list of "The Top 100 Sports Books of All Time."
Other Books by Roger Kahn
Besides The Boys of Summer, Roger Kahn wrote many other books. Some of them include:
- Good Enough to Dream: This book tells the story of a year when he owned a minor league baseball team.
- The Era 1947–57: This book looks at a special decade in baseball. During this time, three New York teams – the Dodgers, Yankees, and Giants – were very strong in Major League Baseball.
- Memories of Summer: In this book, Kahn looks back at his younger years and the start of his career. It also includes stories about famous New York baseball players like Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.
- A Flame of Pure Fire: This is a biography about the famous heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Dempsey.
Roger Kahn said that other journalists like Stanley Woodward, John Lardner, and Red Smith influenced his writing style.
Awards and Honors
Roger Kahn received several awards and honors for his work:
- He was added to the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame on April 30, 2006.
- He won the E. P. Dutton Award five times. This award is given for the best sports magazine article of the year.
Roger Kahn's Family Life
Roger Kahn married Joan Rappaport in 1950, but they divorced in 1963. They had a daughter named Elizabeth, who sadly passed away one day after she was born in 1954. Their son, Gordon Jacques, was born in 1957.
Kahn married his second wife, Alice Lippincott Russell, in 1963. They divorced in 1974. They had a son named Roger Laurence in 1964 and a daughter named Alissa Avril in 1967.
Roger Kahn lived in Stone Ridge, New York, in the Hudson Valley. He married his third wife, Katharine Colt Johnson, in 1989. She worked as a psychotherapist.
Roger Kahn passed away in a nursing home in Mamaroneck, New York, in February 2020. He was 92 years old.
