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Ben Hogan: An American Life
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Published:
Crown 2004
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Description
Authorized, intimate, and definitive, Ben Hogan: A Life is the long-awaited biography of one of golf’s greatest, most enigmatic legends, narrated with the unique eloquence that has made author James Dodson a critically acclaimed national bestseller.

One man is often credited with shaping the landscape of modern golf. Ben Hogan was a short, trim, impeccably dressed Texan whose fierce work ethic, legendary steel nerves, and astonishing triumph over personal disaster earned him not only an army of adoring fans, but one of the finest careers in the history of the sport. Hogan captured a record-tying four U.S. Opens, won five of six major tournaments in a single season, and inspired future generations of professional golfers from Palmer to Norman to Woods.
Yet for all his brilliance, Ben Hogan was an enigma. He was an American hero whose personal life, inner motivation, and famed “secret” were the source of great public mystery. As Hogan grew into a giant on the pro tour, the combination of his cool outward demeanor and invincible, laser-guided accuracy on the golf course froze formidable opponents in their tracks. In 1949, at the peak of his career, Hogan’s mystique was reinforced by a catastrophic automobile accident in which he and his wife, Valerie, were nearly killed after being hit head-on by a Greyhound bus. Doctors predicted Hogan might never walk again – let alone set foot on another golf course. But his miraculous three-year recovery and comeback led to one of the greatest performances in golf history when in 1953 he won the Masters, the U.S. Open, and the British Open (something that’s never been repeated).
In this first-ever family-authorized biography, renowned author James Dodson expertly and emotionally reconstructs Hogan’s complicated life. He discovers an intensely honest man handicapped by self-doubt, buoyed by the determination to prove his own abilities, and unable to escape a long-buried childhood tragedy – the core of the Hogan “secret.” Dodson also reveals both the legendary devotion and eventual strain in Hogan’s sixty-two-year marriage, and a Hogan rarely seen by the public: a warm, jovial man whose charitable spirit and sharp business sense enabled him to build the powerful golf equipment company bearing his name to this day. Ben Hogan: A Life is the authoritative inside portrait golf fans have long awaited.
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
05/11/2004
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780385512664
ASIN:
B000FC1MC8
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

James Dodson. (2004). Ben Hogan: An American Life. Crown.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

James Dodson. 2004. Ben Hogan: An American Life. Crown.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

James Dodson, Ben Hogan: An American Life. Crown, 2004.

MLA Citation (style guide)

James Dodson. Ben Hogan: An American Life. Crown, 2004.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 18:45:23
Date Updated:
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      • role: Author
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      • bioText: JAMES DODSON is the author of bestselling Final Rounds, which was named the Golf Book of the Year by the International Network of Golf in 1996. He is also the author of The Road To Somewhere: Travels With A Young Boy Through An Old World, as well as Faithful Travelers, The Dewsweepers, and A Golfer’s Life, a collaboration with Arnold Palmer that was a New York Times bestseller. A multiple winner of the prestigious Golf Writers of America Award for his column in Golf Magazine, and numerous other literary prizes, Dodson lives with his wife and children on the coast of Maine.
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imprint
Three Rivers Press
publishDate
2004-05-11T00:00:00-04:00
isOwnedByCollections
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title
Ben Hogan
fullDescription
Authorized, intimate, and definitive, Ben Hogan: A Life is the long-awaited biography of one of golf’s greatest, most enigmatic legends, narrated with the unique eloquence that has made author James Dodson a critically acclaimed national bestseller.

One man is often credited with shaping the landscape of modern golf. Ben Hogan was a short, trim, impeccably dressed Texan whose fierce work ethic, legendary steel nerves, and astonishing triumph over personal disaster earned him not only an army of adoring fans, but one of the finest careers in the history of the sport. Hogan captured a record-tying four U.S. Opens, won five of six major tournaments in a single season, and inspired future generations of professional golfers from Palmer to Norman to Woods.
Yet for all his brilliance, Ben Hogan was an enigma. He was an American hero whose personal life, inner motivation, and famed “secret” were the source of great public mystery. As Hogan grew into a giant on the pro tour, the combination of his cool outward demeanor and invincible, laser-guided accuracy on the golf course froze formidable opponents in their tracks. In 1949, at the peak of his career, Hogan’s mystique was reinforced by a catastrophic automobile accident in which he and his wife, Valerie, were nearly killed after being hit head-on by a Greyhound bus. Doctors predicted Hogan might never walk again – let alone set foot on another golf course. But his miraculous three-year recovery and comeback led to one of the greatest performances in golf history when in 1953 he won the Masters, the U.S. Open, and the British Open (something that’s never been repeated).
In this first-ever family-authorized biography, renowned author James Dodson expertly and emotionally reconstructs Hogan’s complicated life. He discovers an intensely honest man handicapped by self-doubt, buoyed by the determination to prove his own abilities, and unable to escape a long-buried childhood tragedy – the core of the Hogan “secret.” Dodson also reveals both the legendary devotion and eventual strain in Hogan’s sixty-two-year marriage, and a Hogan rarely seen by the public: a warm, jovial man whose charitable spirit and sharp business sense enabled him to build the powerful golf equipment company bearing his name to this day. Ben Hogan: A Life is the authoritative inside portrait golf fans have long awaited.
reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: Portland Oregonian
      • content:

        "A must-read for any golf fan."

      • premium: False
      • source: Publishers Weekly (starred review)
      • content: "Dodson... resurrects the flesh-and-blood man from the ashes of apocrypha, providing the most intimate and richly textured portrait of the famous golfer to date."
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        Starred review from April 19, 2004
        Ben Hogan is widely credited with ushering in the modern era of golf. His legendary practice sessions, intense perfectionism and iron determination helped turn a lazy gentleman's game into a high-stakes, competitive sport. Yet Hogan's unprecedented achievements on the golf course were often overshadowed by his fierce demeanor and public reticence, which fueled wild speculations about every aspect of his guarded life and gave birth to countless myths and misrepresentations. Dodson (Final Rounds
        ) resurrects the flesh-and-blood man from the ashes of apocrypha, providing the most intimate and richly textured portrait of the famous golfer to date. Although reverential, Dodson doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of the Hogan story, exposing a vulnerable and pathologically obsessive man whose dogged resolve and incomparable success were matched only by his hidden shame and self-doubt. Reared in Depression-era Texas, nine-year-old Hogan witnessed his father's suicide, a formative event that Dodson believes spurred Hogan's prodigious ambition and drive, as well as his compulsive tendencies and extreme need for privacy. All the mesmerizing stories—including Hogan's near-miraculous comeback and triumph at the 1950 U.S. Open after a debilitating car crash, and his record-setting 1953 season in which he won the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open—are related in lush and loving detail, without overlooking anecdotes about the era's other great players and colorful personalities, such as Sam Snead, Byron Nelson and Jimmy Demaret. As much about the game as about Hogan himself, Dodson's nuanced and engrossing biography adds new depth to a figure who has been excessively scrutinized but rarely understood. Agent, Virginia Barber.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        Starred review from June 1, 2004
        In contrast to the reverence now accorded him, the real Ben Hogan's brusqueness fostered antipathy from the sportswriters of the 1940s. Then came the most shocking nongolf event in the history of golf, the 1949 car-bus smashup that almost killed Hogan and his wife. Hogan's return from death's door to dominate golf is an integral inspirational element in the several extant biographies (most recently, Curt Sampson's " Hogan" in 1996). With authorized access to Hogan's papers, Dodson, author of the well-received " Final Rounds " (2002), brings new information and a new interpretation to the question of Hogan's personality, both before and after the accident. While noting the golfer's modest mellowing following the collision, Dodson considers the key to Hogan's taciturn attitude to be a secret he guarded his entire life: the witnessing at age nine of his father's suicide. Although no proof of Hogan's presence at the scene of his father's death exists, Dodson makes a good circumstantial case. In addition to probing his subject's personality, Dodson ably dramatizes the best remembered of Hogan's on-course heroics, although he avoids the kind of numbing, shot-by-shot detail that rarely holds the interest of even fanatical fans. This is the first Hogan biography to do justice to an enigmatic and complex sports hero, and as such, it becomes the instant standard. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)

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shortDescription
Authorized, intimate, and definitive, Ben Hogan: A Life is the long-awaited biography of one of golf’s greatest, most enigmatic legends, narrated with the unique eloquence that has made author James Dodson a critically acclaimed national bestseller.

One man is often credited with shaping the landscape of modern golf. Ben Hogan was a short, trim, impeccably dressed Texan whose fierce work ethic, legendary steel nerves, and astonishing triumph over personal disaster earned him not only an army of adoring fans, but one of the finest careers in the history of the sport. Hogan captured a record-tying four U.S. Opens, won five of six major tournaments in a single season, and inspired future generations of professional golfers from Palmer to Norman to Woods.
Yet for all his brilliance, Ben Hogan was an enigma. He was an American hero whose personal life, inner motivation, and famed “secret” were the source of great public mystery. As Hogan grew into a...
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