A fine biographical piece on Mark Kram by Mark Kram

jgmacg - you should also post this somewhere on the writer's thread. Eight hours after reading this for the first time, I'm still haunted by it.

 

I'll copy it up to the Professional Readings thread, as well.

 

Mr macg,

Longshot: Any recovering that Cool Papa Bell piece? Any other Kram Sr stuff by linkage or whatever? God, Ghosts of Manila cut to the bone. Talk about suffering for your art (or your father's art) ...

YHS, etc

 

This is perhaps a dumb question, but one whose answer I do not know: The sports editor of the Baltimore Son, Bob Maisel - father of Ivan?

 

Wow...

"And he remembered some advice he had once gotten from Laguerre, who had gotten it from Raymond Chandler years before over drinks in London: “Always try to leave three things on each page that matter to you as a writer. A word, a phrase, a line of dialogue, an observation of character. By the end of a story, these tracks of craft will lead to quality.” I remember thinking what an education our conversations had become."

 

OK. This piece is now posted on the Professional Readings thread in the workshop, so it's semi-permanent. Also, for those who may have missed it in the rail of the story itself, this: Mark Kram's defining piece.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/centurys_best/news/1999/05/05/thrilla_manila/

 

good piece

looking forward to Kram's next piece, in the fall of 2009

 

I'd rather write one great story a year than 1,000 mediocre ones.

 

Ditto.

 

Sirs, Madames,

Actually, if they're the right 1,000 words, you're okay to take a bit more than 12 months.

Gold: MK2's piece. Up the chute: JJ Sullivan's meditation on sportswriter-father, Blood Horses.

YHS, etc

 

No

 

Some stuff here:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/1998/holyfield/garden/5ali_frazier.html