The Runner's Literary Companion: Great Stories and Poems About Running

by Garth Battista (Editor)

Overview

A collection of the best writing on running—for anyone who loves reading as much as running, or who just loves to run.
 
This inspiring collection of forty-eight short stories and poems—brimming with courage, fear, pain, hope, and elation—offers an intimate glimpse of the runner’s art and heart. The very best writing about running is here, yet the selections aren’t simply about the physical challenge of going just one more mile or knocking off another second. Here you’ll find a love story, two war tales, a horror story, several murder mysteries, and a surreal comedy—by such authors as Evelyn Waugh, Walt Whitman, Joyce Carrol Oates, Max Apple, and A.E. Housman.

Whether you’re a weekend athlete, an Olympic hopeful, or simply someone who likes to read rather than run, this wonderful and exhilarating anthology has something to offer.
 
“Animates the spirit of running better than any other book.”—Runner’s World

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140253535
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/01/1996
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Garth Battista is the editor of The Runner's Literary Companion and How Running Changed My Life.

Editorial Reviews

...[A] pleasinginspiring collection of 48 short stories and poems on running...

Kick!

Among the 24 stories and 25 poems in this fictional overview of a popular sport are surprises from such illustrious names as Evelyn Waugh, Joyce Carol Oates and Walt Whitman-though the more turgid, macho prose of such genre giants as Alan Sillitoe and John L. Parker sets the book's overall emotional tone. The better stories break away from the repetitious variations on the theme of competition: Sara Maitland's ``The Loveliness of the Long-Distance Runner,'' for instance, explores the oppositional thoughts of a woman runner about to enter a marathon and her female, non-athletic lover, who is both attracted and repelled by the nature of her partner's hobby. Oates's ``Running'' is an unusual, stream-of-consciousness narrative about a nameless woman who, while running in the woods with her lover, perceives a physical threat from a group of men. On the darker side, the title character in James Tabor's ``The Runner'' is attacked by rednecks in a remote area and decides to fight back, with startling results. This collection should prove indispensable for hard-core road warriors and of significant interest to sports fiction fans in general-and may even contain enough surprises to gratify readers in the mainstream. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly