After an auction that saw several publishers bid into the seven figures, Scribner’s Nan Graham took world rights to the first authorized biography of baseball great Willie Mays. The book will be written by bestselling author James S. Hirsch, and Todd Shuster at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth sold the project, currently titled Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend. Random House was the underbidder.
Considered by many to be the greatest all-around player in baseball history, Mays had 660 home runs, 3,283 hits and 12 Gold Gloves in almost 3,000 games over 22 years. Mays also played an important role in developing the science of modern baseball as well as battling his share of racial bigotry. Hirsch, who has written extensively about race relations in America in the 20th century, will address all three of these facets of Mays’s life and career in the book.
Mays, 76, who has turned down a number of publishing opportunities over the years, reportedly agreed to this book largely because it will define his legacy on and off the field. His share of the proceeds will support his Say Hey Foundation, which primarily advances children’s causes. Mays, and the foundation, are represented by attorney Jeffrey L. Bleich of the California firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson.
Hirsch, a former reporter for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, is the author of four books: Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter; Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy; Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship That Saved Two American POWs in Vietnam; and Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes, America’s Biggest Epidemic.
No publication date has been announced.
