It is considered by many the greatest season in golf history. In 1953 Ben Hogan provided a fitting exclamation point to his miraculous comeback from a near-fatal auto accident by becoming the first player to win golf’s Triple Crown—the Masters, the U.S. Open, and the British Open—within a span of four months. It was closer than anyone had gotten to the modern-day Grand Slam of winning all four of golf’s major tournaments. The Wee Ice Mon Cometh is the first book to detail Hogan’s historic accomplishment. His 1953 season remains the world’s greatest, and golfers seek to match his achievement every year. Bobby Jones in 1930 and Tiger Woods in 2000–2001 achieved comparable “slams,” but the Hogan Slam stands alone due to the car crash four years before that left Hogan on shattered legs. He nonetheless won with record-setting performances on three of the most challenging courses in the world: Augusta National at the Masters, the U.S. Open at Oakmont, and the British Open at Carnoustie, Scotland. Ed Gruver weaves together interviews with members of Hogan’s family, golf historians, playing partners, and business partners along with extensive research and eyewitness accounts of each tournament. Seventy years after his historic feat, the Hogan Slam still serves as a symbol for the many comebacks Hogan had to make throughout his life—his father’s death by suicide when Ben was a boy, desperate days during the Great Depression, frustrating failures in tournaments early in his career, and the horrific accident that nearly killed him just as he was finally reaching the pinnacle of his profession.

A Golf Match You'll Never Forget Lying on An operating table, about to undergo emergency heart surgery, Elliott Goodman hears the voice of God--as in The Almighty--speaking to him. God, it seems, has a last-second wager for Elliott, challenging him to an eighteen-hole golf match. If Elliott wins, he'll be saved. If he loses. . . God sends down eighteen legendary opponents to play against Elliott and to hopefully teach him a few tricks along the way. From Leonardo da Vinci (nice clubs) to Marilyn Monroe (nice. . .everything), Babe Ruth (pass the hot dogs), Abraham Lincoln (cheater!), and fourteen other luminaries, including Moses, John Lennon, Joan of Arc, Picasso, W.C. Fields, Gandhi, and Shakespeare, Elliott squares off against some of the most extraordinary people who've ever lived. As shots are analyzed, balls enter bunkers, and Freud drives the cart (control freak), Elliott has a chance to examine his life and his form, to see what he can correct or improve before facing his ultimate adversary. Big-hearted and delightfully original, Match Made in Heaven is a timeless tale about finding joy and inspiration on the greatest of all courses--life. "An engaging and often hilarious account of a star-studded round." --Bob Costas "A great read. . .Bob Mitchell writes with wit, intelligence, and passion." --Bill Bradley "Bob Mitchell's masterpiece reveals his genius for weaving life's wonderful lessons within a magical golf story." --Ann Liguori

"On August 5, 1964, while Lt. (jg) Everett Alvarez, Jr., was flying a retaliatory air strike against naval targets in North Vietnam, antiaircraft fire crippled his A-4 fighter-bomber, forcing him to eject over water at low altitude. Alvarez and coauthor Anthony S. Pitch relate the tale of Alvarez's capture, brutal treatment, physical and mental endurance, and triumphant repatriation nearly nine years later."--BOOK JACKET.

Three-time winner of the National League's Most Valuable Player award, Roy Campanella was catcher for the Brooklyn (soon to be Los Angeles) Dodgers in January 1958, when a car accident left him permanently paralyzed. It's Good to Be Alive describes his determination to rally from helplessness and help other quadriplegics. It looks back to a famous career and to a childhood on the sandlots of Philadelphia.

A memoir of a Soviet artist who became a resistance fighter against Nazi Germany during World War II. The epic World War II battles between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union are the subject of a vast literature, but little has been published in English on the experiences of ordinary Soviets?civilians and soldiers?who were sucked into a bitter conflict that marked their lives forever. Their struggle for survival, and their resistance to the invaders’ brutality in the occupied territories, is one of the great untold stories of the war. Written late in the author’s life, Nikolai Obryn’ba’s unforgettable, intimate memoir tells of Operation Barbarossa, during which he was taken prisoner; the horrors of SS prison camps; his escape; his war fighting behind German lines as a partisan; and the world of suffering and tragedy around him. His perceptive, uncompromising account lays bare the everyday reality of war on the Eastern Front. Praise for Red Partisan “[Obryn’ba’s] descriptions of life in a German POW camp offer unique insights into a little-discussed aspect of the Eastern Front.” —Military Review “Obryn’ba’s simple and candid yet gripping memoir presents a credible mosaic of vivid images of life in the Red Army during the harrowing first few months of war and unprecedented details about his participation in the brutal but shadowy partisan war that raged deep in the German army’s rear. A must read for those seeking a human face on this most inhuman of twentieth-century wars.” —David M. Glantz, historian of the Soviet military