Book by Pfeiffer, Dea

A straightforward yet inspiring story of what it took to be the first man of color to break into the white world of professional sports. Jackie Robinson's story is more than a telling of his tremendous talent; it is also a recollection that showcases his tenacious spirit, bravery and the courage of his ideals. From the early influences of family and friends, to his time at UCLA, to the army where he challenged racism and Jim Crow laws, Jackie Robinson traces his life to playing in the black leagues, frustrated by the abuses and restrictions of second-class status in professional baseball. As Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, began to look around for a player to break the color barrier in 1946, he knew he needed a man of character who could withstand the pressures of his "Noble Experiment." Choosing Robinson gave both of them the chance to prove what they believed in. Struggles that continued in his personal life and in response to the turbulent sixties are interpreted with insight by Robinson and will give listeners an added appreciation for the amazing strength of his character.

It is somewhat curious that there is, so far as I know, no complete handling in English of the subject of this volume, popular and important though that subject has been. Dunlop's _History of Fiction_, an excellent book, dealt with a much wider matter, and perforce ceased its dealing just at the beginning of the most abundant and brilliant development of the English division. Sir Walter Raleigh's _English Novel_, a book of the highest value for acute criticism and grace of style, stops short at Miss Austen, and only glances, by a sort of anticipation, at Scott. The late Mr. Sidney Lanier's _English Novel and the Principle of its Development_ is really nothing but a laudatory study of "George Eliot," with glances at other writers, including violent denunciations of the great eighteenth-century men. There are numerous monographs on parts of the subject: but nothing else that I know even attempting the whole.

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Flames of tyranny burn in paradise.

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