Acknowledgments
I talked with over four hundred people for this project. I thank all of them for their kindness and interest. I have learned about fishing, flying, fame, human nature, medical science, dozens of different subjects, including the fine art of hitting a baseball. (Wait for a good ball to hit.) I asked a lot of uneducated questions and received a lot of thoughtful, informed answers. Time, handed to an inquisitive stranger, is a wonderful gift.
I thank everyone who gave me that gift.
The map of Williams's baseball career has been laid out well in several books that I read, notably Hitter: The Life and Turmoils of Ted Williams by Ed Linn; Ted Williams: A Baseball Life by Michael Seidel; and Ted Williams: A Portrait in Words and Pictures by Dick Johnson and Glenn Stout. My Turn at Bat, Williams's autobiography, written with John Underwood, still captures his voice as if he were sitting in the same room. Ted Williams: The Pursuit of Perfection by Jim Prime and Bill Nowlin and I Remember Ted Williams by David Cataneo are sweet collections of interviews of people who knew, saw, or were touched in any way by the famous man. Edwin Pope, whose book Ted Williams: The Golden Year is an overlooked gem, gave me a fat loose-leaf binder filled with the research for both that book and for his unwritten book about the 1941 season. Thanks are not enough.
From the newspaper and magazine side, thanks to all contestants, living and dead, in The Great Ted Williams Theme Contest. Their words gave the famous man's life as much substance and character as anything he did on the field. Special thanks to sports editor Don Skwar and the librarians at the Boston Globe.
Ted's nephew, Ted Williams, provided some photographs of Ted's mother and brother that had never been published. Frank Cushing, Ted's friend, provided some other new, remarkable shots from the Korean War. Thanks also to Jerry Romolt, George Carter, and Lewis Watkins for pictures from their personal collections. Thanks to Stan Grossfeld at the Globe and Debbie Matson at the Boston Red Sox.
Finally, thanks to Jason Kaufman, my editor; to Esther Newberg, my agent; to Bill Nowlin and Clark Booth, my sounding boards; to my children, Leigh Montville and Robin Moleux and her husband, Doug; to my stepchildren, Alex, Ashley, and Matt; and to Samantha, my wife, friend, copy reader, and heart.