The Essential W.P. Kinsella

This career retrospective celebrates the 80th birthday of baseball’s greatest scribe, W. P. Kinsella (*Shoeless Joe*), as well as the 25th anniversary of *Field of Dreams*, the film that he inspired.

In addition to his classic baseball tales, W. P. Kinsella is also a critically-acclaimed short fiction writer. His satiric wit has been celebrated with numerous honors, including the Order of British Columbia.

Here are his notorious First Nation narratives of indigenous Canadians, and a literary homage to J. D. Salinger. Alongside the “real” story of the 1951 Giants and the afterlife of Roberto Clemente, are the legends of a pirated radio station and a hockey game rigged by tribal magic.

Eclectic, dark, and comedic by turns, The Essential W. P. Kinsella is a living tribute to an extraordinary raconteur.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Rick Wilber

Truth

How I Got My Nickname

The Night Manny Mota Tied the Record

First Names and Empty Pockets

Searching for January

Lieberman in Love

The Grecian Urn

The Fog

Beef

Distances

How Manny Embarquadero Overcame and Began His Climb to the Major Leagues

The Indian Nation Cultural Exchange Program

K Mart

The Firefighter

Dr. Don

Brother Frank’s Gospel Hour

The Alligator Report—with Questions for Discussion

King of the Street

Wavelengths

Do Not Abandon Me

Marco in Paradise

Out of the Picture

The Lightning Birds

Punchlines

The Last Surviving Member of the Japanese Victory Society

The Job

Risk Takers

The Lime Tree

Doves and Proverbs

Waiting on Lombard Street

Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa

Afterward - Where It Began: Shoeless Joe