Literary Diamonds: Baseball In Fiction and Poetry

From “dime novels” to post-modern parables, from “Casey at the Bat” to the haiku, the game/sport/business of baseball our “National Pastime” (or at least it used to be)has provided writers with themes, plots, myths, characters, and language.  It is widely believed that baseball, more than any other sport, is “the writer’s game.” Jacques Barzun told us that “whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball…,” and Walt Whitman said the game “has the snap, go, fling, of the American atmosphere…”

Join presenter Keith Danish as he shows how creative writers of fiction and poetry have used baseball as a metaphor for America, its motley, kaleidoscopic populace, and its changing role in the world. Just as Moby Dick is more than a guide to whaling, Keith’s talk will reveal how a story or poem set on or around the baseball diamond can help us to understand the meaning of life, its delights and, more often, its sorrows.

Keith is a retired attorney who specialized in intellectual property law and has been a baseball fan since he was a kid.  He has lectured on various topics, including U.S. labor history, military subjects, and baseball’s business and labor history, at the Institute of New Dimensions (IND), Baseball Hall of Fame, Puffin Foundation, and local libraries. He is a member of the Executive Board of the N.Y. Labor History Association, where he serves as its newsletter and book review editor.

This program is open to all and does not require registration. 

Please note: Space for the event is limited