Seabiscuit: An American Legend (Special illustrated collector's edition)

New York: Random House, 2003. First Thus. 1/4 cloth. Fine/fine. A fine first printing of this first thus ---special illustrated collector's edition in an equally fine dust jacket. No flaws. Black paper boards under black quarter cloth. xviii, 377 p. : ill. Quarto. A deluxe illustrated edition of one of the most beloved books of our time, with nearly 150 historic photographs personally selected by the author. The spellbinding true story of how three men and a great racehorse captivated a nation, Laura Hillenbrand's "Seabiscuit:" An American Legend became an immediate number one bestseller and cultural phenomenon upon its publication in 2001. Named one of the best books of the year by more than twenty publications--including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, People, USA Today, and The Economist--"Seabiscuit" was also honored as the BookSense Nonfiction Book of the Year and the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, and was a finalist for several other major prizes, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. For this lavishly illustrated special edition, author Laura Hillenbrand has written a new Introduction and selected nearly 150 rare photographs from historic archives and private collections. Seabiscuit tells the story of three remarkable men: Charles Howard, a bicycle repairman who made a fortune by introducing the automobile to the American West; Red Pollard, a failed prizefighter and failing jockey who was abandoned as a boy at a makeshift racetrack; and Tom Smith, an enigmatic mustang breaker who came from the vanishing frontier, bearing generations of lost wisdom about the secrets of horses. In the sultry summer of 1936, the lives of these men converged around a bad-legged, floundering racehorse named Seabiscuit. Forming an improbable partnership, they transformed the horse into one of the most extraordinary competitors in sports history. In four tumultuous years, the rags-to-riches horse overcame a phenomenal run of misfortune to emerge as an American cultural icon, drawing an immense following, prompting an avalanche of merchandising, and establishing himself as the single biggest newsmaker of 1938--receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or any other public figure. "Seabiscuit" is an inspiring tale of unlikely heroes, a classic story of three embattled individuals and a remarkable racehorse overcoming the odds in the Great Depression." - Worldcat