Books with author Laura Hillenbrand

Laura Hillenbrand, an award-winning racing journalist, delivers an in-depth, winning biography of a horse, detailing the lives of Tom Smith, a silent, eccentric trainer, Charles Howard, a wealthy horseowner, and Red Pollard, a half-blind, down-on-his-luck jockey, whose combined talents produced an unlikely champion. The struggles of Seabiscuit and his jockey paralleled those of an entire nation--which was suffering under the Depression and the threat of war--and caught its attention; in 1938 the horse reportedly received more newspaper coverage than Roosevelt, Hitler, or Mussolini. By delivering work that gives an impressive sense of a particular horse, the sport, the racetrack milieu, and the mood of the country during the time, the author inspires admiration and respect for the implausible champion and his team, and also does a great service to sportswriting. A New York Times Notable Book for 2001.

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The true story of three men and their dreams for a racehorse -- Seabiscuit -- that symbolised a pivotal moment in American history, as the twentieth century's greatest nation found the courage to bet on itself to win against the odds. Now a major motion picture directed by Gary Ross and starring Toby Maguire and Jeff Daniels. In 1936 the habits of 19th-century America were finally consigned to history just as Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind was published. In their place, modern America was born. But what defined this new era? Nothing more than the story of Seabiscuit, a stunted colt with asymmetrical knees that had for two years been hacked around no-good race tracks which led to permanent leg damage. Yet by 1937 Seabiscuit could draw crowds of 60,000 and had more newspaper column inches devoted to him than Mussolini, Hitler or Roosevelt, his popularity peaking during his appearances at the Santa Anita Handicap. America had gone to the races for the first time since the Depression and fallen in love with a misshapen colt of great character. Now it wanted a winner. Seabiscuit is aslo the story of three men: Tom Smith, a former Wild West Showman was the trainer; Red Pollard, abandoned by his poverty stricken family at a race track became the rider; and Charles Howard, a pioneer car manufacturer in San Francisco in the 1920s was the owner and financier. These three combined to create the legend of Seabiscuit and epitomise a dream for the emerging new America.