News
What It Took to Write About Baseball as a Woman
Jane Leavy reflects on fraught encounters with Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin in The New Yorker: Jane Leavy Illustration by João Fazenda Last month, forty years after the Southern District court of New York ordered the Yankees to open their clubhouse to female...
USA Today: 5 Books You Don’t Want to Miss
5. "The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created" by Jane Leavy (Harper, nonfiction, on sale Oct. 16) What it's about: With the World Series just a week away, the time seems right for a bio of the Babe, arguably the game's biggest star ever. The buzz: A...
The Big Fella Reviewed in WSJ, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune
Boston Globe, "23 hot picks for cool fall books" Leavy follows up her outstanding biography of Mickey Mantle with another winner, this time about the most important baseball player of all time. The author covers all aspects of Ruth's massive life, bringing true...
The Big Fella on Vulture’s Best New Books
New Books You Should Read This October Each month, Boris Kachka offers nonfiction and fiction book recommendations. You should read as many of them as possible. See his picks from last month and next month. The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, by Jane...
‘The Big Fella’ is not just another bio of Babe Ruth
In the News & Observer Is there anything new to learn about Babe Ruth? Countless books have been written about him, probably more than the number of home runs he sent soaring above American League fences. For almost a century, Ruth has been the subject of endless...
Read an Exclusive Excerpt for The Big Fella at SI.com
“How Babe Ruth Became the Model for the Modern Celebrity Athlete.” This story appears in the Oct. 8, 2018, issue of Sports Illustrated.
Watch Jane’s Pitch
At the Yankee home game against the Orioles on Friday, September 21, Jane threw out the first pitch! The last homestand of the regular season ended in a win for Babe's old team, 10-8.
Sioux City’s Hersom is Excited for Big Fella
Terry Hersom, columnist at the Sioux City Journal, shares his thoughts on Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, and the brother who knew the Big Fella well.
Starred Review from Publishers Weekly
As Leavy points out, Ruth lived as hard as he played; he "imbibed whatever life had to offer." Ruth's accomplishments and his appetites for drink and women (he had several extramarital affairs) coincided with the rise of sports journalism and marketing, and his...
The Big Fella is a Top 10 in Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly posted its list of the Top 10 Memoirs & Biographies coming in Fall 2018: This fall sees some striking memoirs by and biographies of movie and TV notables, big-name athletes, and important political figures: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life:...