W. C. Heinz 1915 - 2008

W. C. (Bill) Heinz was an American sportswriter, war correspondent, magazine writer, and novelist. Newsweek called him "a matchless reporter and brilliant author." Sports Illustrated claims, "In an era when America's great sportswriters were as big as the athletes they covered, W.C. Heinz may have been the best of the bunch." He is often referred to as "the Godfather" of the New Journalism movement of the sixties. He broke down the walls of staid, factual sports reporting and took the reader inside the athlete's world through the use of colorful dialogue and lean, crafted description. Heinz has said of his writing, "What I attempt to do is set the scene and put the characters in it and let them talk. When I can do this with sufficient accuracy and sensitivity, the reader experiences the impression, very real, that he, himself, saw it and heard it, for he was there."

Heinz compared the process of writing to "building a stone wall without mortar. You place the words one at a time, fit them, take them apart and refit them until they're balanced and solid."

Happy 100th Birthday, Bill Heinz!

W. C. Heinz is at his best in a new collection published by The Library of America in honor of his centennial, The Top of His Game. Edited by NPR's Bill Littlefield, the collection mirrors Heinz's career from his transition from war correspondent to sports columnist to a magazine freelance writer to author. Selections include a variety of his daily NY Sun sports columns, some of which have not seen print since first published in 1949, as well as his time honored, award winning magazine pieces. The book concludes with nostalgic chapters from Heinz's book, Once They Heard the Cheers, where the author travels throughout the country revisiting some of his favorite athletes whom he had covered during their glory years, decades earlier. This collection is a journey through Bill's career with an insightful, entertaining story at every turn.

"Heinz is not just one of the great American sportswriters this country has produced, he is one of the great American writers." -- Mike Lupica