Status
Available
Local notes
921 Rob
Collections
Publication
Ecco Pr (1995), 275 pages
Description
Autobiography of an African American who broke the color barrier in major league baseball and devoted his life to achieving justice.
Awards
Coretta Scott King Award (Winner — 1973)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
275 p.; 6.25 inches
User reviews
LibraryThing member supermanboidy
Interesting to hear Jackie's voice, but sadly disappointing in overall tone. The book is mostly about Robinson's racial struggles, rather than the major events and achievements of his life. The book is overwhelmingly bitter with few rests for positive moments along the way. His baseball career and
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achievements fly by with greater emphasis on later years and racial struggles. We're talking two pages about the '55 World Series. TWO PAGES! It's worth stepping into Jackie's shoes, but be prepared once you're in them. Show Less
LibraryThing member Clare.Davitt
Wonderful read whether you're an avid baseball fan or (like me) completely uneducated on the baseball world. Jackie Robinson's voice comes through loud and clear in a tone of humility, pride, and dedication. Robinson was a hero in so many ways and affected the history of the US in more ways than I
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ever imagined. Show Less
LibraryThing member SamSattler
"I Never Had It Made" is one of those "as told to" books in which another writer does the grunt work of actually getting the author's words onto a piece of paper in publishable form (in this case that man was Alfred Duckett). Despite this, one comes away from this combination
Baseball fans (by far, the primary audience for this book today)will be disappointed to find that only about one-third of the book is devoted to Robinson's baseball career And even that portion of the book, as it probably should, spends much more time on the racial aspect of Robinson breaking the baseball color barrier than it spends on his career itself.
Jackie Robinson was a very proud black man, a man comfortable with his race and determined to get a fair shake from the white-dominated world in which he lived. He was also, at the end, a very bitter man because as it became more and more obvious that the civil rights games he longed for were not likely to be accomplished in his own lifetime. All of that comes across very strongly in the remaining two-thirds of the book, and considering the progress made after Robinson's death it, at times, makes for sad and tedious reading.
"I Never Had It Made" is a reflection of its times and the personal struggles that Robinson (and his fellow blacks) went through during those years. It is worth a read - but it is not about baseball. It is about the civil rights struggle in this country during the first six or seven decades of the twentieth century.
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autobiography/political screed with a sense that these are largely Jackie Robinson's words, that the book is very personal to Robinson and that this is precisely the way the man expressed himself in his day (this book was published in 1972).Baseball fans (by far, the primary audience for this book today)will be disappointed to find that only about one-third of the book is devoted to Robinson's baseball career And even that portion of the book, as it probably should, spends much more time on the racial aspect of Robinson breaking the baseball color barrier than it spends on his career itself.
Jackie Robinson was a very proud black man, a man comfortable with his race and determined to get a fair shake from the white-dominated world in which he lived. He was also, at the end, a very bitter man because as it became more and more obvious that the civil rights games he longed for were not likely to be accomplished in his own lifetime. All of that comes across very strongly in the remaining two-thirds of the book, and considering the progress made after Robinson's death it, at times, makes for sad and tedious reading.
"I Never Had It Made" is a reflection of its times and the personal struggles that Robinson (and his fellow blacks) went through during those years. It is worth a read - but it is not about baseball. It is about the civil rights struggle in this country during the first six or seven decades of the twentieth century.
Show Less
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Pages
275