THE OMNIBUS OF SPORT: A Reissue

From the blow by blow account of the Odysseus Ajax wrestling match to F.P.A.'s ""Tinker to Evers to Chance"", this reissue of sportsania is a delight for the sports-minded youngster and all who enjoy short pick-up reading -- not that this anthology is easy to put down' Grouped conveniently by subject, the material includes selections from fiction, essays, news stories and poems, ancient and modern. The snatches of prose and poetry from the ""ancients"" about such sports as archery, cock-fighting, badger-baiting, falconry and even f jumping are enough to keep the night light burning. There are titles here which will be met many times later by the follower of sports fiction- Lardner's A Busher's Letters Home, Twain's The Jumping Frog, Hemingway's The Undefeated, etc. -- and stories by Owen Johnson, Sigfried Sassoon. Ben Ames Williams, George Ade, Arthur Conan Doyle, Paul Gallico and Will James. Rounding out this view of sports are news stories by Richard Harding Davis. Grantland Rice, Heywood Broun, John Kieran, Irvin Cobb and others. An unusually entertaining collection of clean sports fiction valuable not only for encouraging slow readers but also, since the material is varied, establishing critical habits in contemporary sports writing. Some of the material may be difficult reading for some in this age group but is entirely suitable on interest level which doubles for young adults and adults.