“How many you bringing back for lunch?”
“Eight.”
“Eight?”
“I couldn’t get out of inviting Johnny Roper. He knows Jack Monroe is coming.”
“I see.”
“A little warning. Don’t, for Chrissake, ask Cy how Marsha is. They’re separating. And I’m afraid Manny Gordon is coming with a girl. I want you to be nice to her.”
“Anything else?”
“If Gershon phones from Rome while the guys are there, please remember I’m taking the call upstairs. And please don’t start collecting glasses and emptying ashtrays at four o’clock. It’s embarrassing. Bloody Jake Hersh is coming and it’s just the sort of incident he’d pick on and joke about for months.”
“I never coll—”
“All right, all right. Oh, shit, something else. Tom Hunt is coming.”
“The actor?”
“Yeah. Now listen, he’s very touchy, so will you please put away Sheila’s doll.”
“Sheila’s doll?”
“If she comes in carrying that bloody golliwog I’ll die. Hide it. Burn it. Hunt gets script approval these days, you know.”
“All right, dear.”
“See you soon.”
Permissions
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for the permission to reprint previously published material:
The quotation here, and the second quotation here is from St. Urbain’s Horseman by Mordecai Richler. Copyright © 1966, 1967, 1971 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
The first quotation here is from The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler. Copyright © 1959 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
The essay “An Incompleat Angler’s Journal” first appeared in GQ, August, 1991. Copyright © 1991 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of GQ, a division of Condé Nast Publications.
The essay “Jews in Sports” first appeared in Book Week. Copyright © 1966 by Mordecai Richler.
The essay “A Real Canadian Success Story” appeared in Home Sweet Home. Copyright © 1984 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
The essay “With the Trail Smoke Eaters in Stockholm” first appeared in Maclean’s. Copyright © 1962 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of Maclean’s.
The essay “Safari” first appeared in Signature magazine, February 1983, under the title, “Africa the Great Adventure.” Copyright © 1983 by Mordecai Richler.
The essay “You Know Me, Ring” first appeared in GQ, September 1986. Copyright © 1986 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of GQ, a division of Condé Nast Publications.
The essay “Writers and Sports” copyright © by Mordecai Richler.
The essay “Gretzky in Eighty-five” first appeared in The New York Times Sport Magazine, September 29, 1985. Copyright © 1985 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of The New York Times Company.
The essay “From Satchel, through Hank Greenberg, to El Divino Loco” first appeared in GQ, July 1989. Copyright © 1989 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of GQ, a division of Condé Nast Publications.
The essay “Eddie Quinn” first appeared in Maclean’s, November 19, 1960. Copyright © 1960 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of Maclean’s.
The essay “Cheap Skates” first appeared in GQ, January 1986. Copyright © 1986 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of GQ, a divisions of Conté Nast Publications.
The essay “Maxie” first appeared in On Snooker by Mordecai Richler. Copyright © 2001 by Mordecai Richler Productions Limited. Reprinted by permission of Knopf Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited.
The essay “Paper Lion” first appeared in The New York Review of Books, February 23, 1967. Copyright © 1967 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of The New York Review of Books.
The essay “Gordie” first appeared in Inside Sports magazine, November 30, 1980, under the title, “Howe Incredible”. Copyright © 1980 by Mordecai Richler.
The essay “Pete Rose” first appeared in The New York Times Sports Magazine, March 31, 1985. Copyright © 1985 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of The New York Times Company.
The essay “Kiss the Ump” first appeared in GQ, June 1992. Copyright © 1992 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of GQ, a divisions of Conté Nast Publications.
The essay “Soul on Ice” first appeared in GQ, November 1983. Copyright © 1983 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of GQ, a division of Conté Nast Publications.
The essay “From Gladu…” appeared in Home Sweet Home. Copyright © 1984 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
The essay “The Fall of the Montreal Canadiens” appeared in Home Sweet Home. Copyright © 1984 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
The excerpt on pages 275 to 290 is from St. Urbain’s Horseman. Copyright © 1966, 1967, 1971 by Mordecai Richler. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders; in the event of an inadvertent omission or error, please notify the publisher.
Mordecai Richler wrote ten novels and numerous screenplays, essays, children’s books and several works of non-fiction, most recently On Snooker. During his career, he was the recipient of dozens of literary awards, including two Governor General’s Awards, the Giller Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada a few months before his death on July 3, 2001.
VINTAGE CANADA EDITION, 2003
Copyright © 2002 Mordecai Richler Productions Limited
Foreword © 2002 Noah Richler
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Published in Canada by Vintage Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in Canada by Alfred A. Knopf Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, in 2002, and simultaneously in the United States by The Lyons Press. Distributed by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Vintage Canada and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House of Canada Limited.
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Richler, Mordecai, 1931–2001
Dispatches from the sporting life / Mordecai Richler;
foreword by Noah Richler.
eISBN: 978-0-307-37101-0
1. Sports. I. Title.
GV707.R52 2003 796 C2003-900769-3
Pages 292 to 295 constitute a continuation of the copyright page.
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