Paper Tiger: An Old Sportswriter’s Reminiscences of People, Newspapers, War and Work

Stanley Woodward (1895-1964) was a veteran sports writer, newspaperman, and sports editor of the New York Herald Tribune; indeed, some believe he was the greatest of all sports editors. Paper Tiger is his lively and vivid account of his life as an athlete, sailor, war correspondent, and metropolitan journalist. Whether discussing his war experiences, the world of sports, or the tough and exciting world of newspaper life, Woodward speaks with a rare directness. When he doesn’t like something or someone, he makes no bones about it. Yet, despite all of his often acerbic comments, we always have the feeling that the author’s honesty is matched by his fairness. Partisan he may be; vindictive and sour he is not. Although Paper Tiger will appeal especially to sports fans, anyone who wants to know the inside story of newspaper life will find it a fascinating book.

In his phenomenal career, Stanley Woodward wrote a number of sports books, including Sports Page and Stanley Woodward’s Football. He is the winner of three E. P. Dutton awards for sports writing. John Schulian is the author of Writers’ Fighters and Other Sweet Scientists and Twilight of the Long-ball Gods: Dispatches from the Disappearing Heart of Baseball, available in a Bison Books edition.