Rediscover the golden age of journalism, when columns were events, through this collection of more than 70 pieces by a master stylist and larger-than-life character on the New York and national scene from JFK to Trump

Plus, on its 50th anniversary, revisit the Watergate summer in How the Good Guys Finally Won, an unforgettable portrait of the Congressional leaders who took down a rogue president

He opened us up to a world of possibilities. What we did with them was our concern. He had his own work to do. No one ever did it better.
--John Schulian

Across a career spanning six decades, from the Kennedy assassination to 9/11, Jimmy Breslin was the greatest newspaper columnist of his era.

The 72 columns selected here by editor Dan Barry, more than half of which have not been reprinted since initial publication, reveal Breslin at his best, addressing stories of national and global importance but more often uncovering tales of ordinary New Yorkers, by turns tragic or absurd but always gripping to read. Gathered here are the highlights of his consummate deadline artistry: his celebrated interview with the man who dug the grave for John F. Kennedy, his coverage of the assassination of Malcolm X, his dispatches from the South at the height of the Civil Rights movement and from Vietnam, accounts of his involvement with the Son of Sam case as the serial killer who terrorized New York City in 1977, his story about John Lennon's murder in 1980, his award-winning series about the AIDS crisis in 1986, and his disgusted glimpse of Donald Trump conning the press corps during a book promotion in 1990.

These masterful columns are joined by two of Breslin's books: How the Good Guys Finally Won (1976), one of the best accounts of the Watergate scandal, centered on House Majority Leader Tip O'Neill and his allies, whose success in forcing Richard Nixon for office scored an unlikely victory for U.S. democracy; and The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutiérrez (2002), the story of an immigrant laborer killed at a construction site in Brooklyn and of the malfeasance among developers, city officials, and others that enabled the accident to happen.

As quintessentially a New York figure as the memorable urban characters he portrayed, Breslin nonetheless transcended the confines of his local audience and became a national celebrity, writing with a novelist's awareness of the telling detail that reveals the depth of a person's, and a people's, character.

It was a big bestseller when it was originally published in 1969. It became a major motion picture that provided Robert DeNiro with his first film role. Its title has entered into the language as a catch phrase. And it's terrific fun!

The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight is the story of Papa Baccala, a Brooklyn Mafia boss, and Kid Sally Palumbo, a would-be capo who couldn't run a gas station at a profit even if he stole the customers' cars. There's also Kid Sally's grandmother, who will go to extravagant lengths to see her boy make his mark. A love interest? Sure. Kid Sally's sister tumbles for an artistic type who rides a bicycle and has recently arrived from Calabria...

The high adventure begins with a six-day bike race that is only partly responsible for a rash of obituary notices reading: Died. Suddenly. Eventually it all gets worked out in fine Sicilian fashion -- and, in the end, everybody gets his, in a manner of speaking.

In his inimitable New York voice, Pulitzer Prize winner Jimmy Breslin gives us a look through the keyhole at the people and places that define the Mafia--characters like John Gotti, Sammy the Bull Gravano, Anthony Gaspipe Casso (named for his weapon of choice), and Jimmy the Clam Eppolito--interwoven with the remarkable true-crime saga of the good rat himself, Burt Kaplan of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, the star witness in the recent trial of two NYPD detectives indicted for carrying out eight gangland executions. Through these unforgettable real-life and long-forgotten Mafia stories, Jimmy Breslin captures the moments in which the mob was made and broken.

After a lifetime of attending mass every Sunday, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jimmy Breslin has severed his ties to the church he once loved--in this important book, filled with a fury generated by a sense of betrayal, he explains why.

When the church sex scandals emerged relentlessly in recent years, and when it became apparent that these scandals had been covered up by the church hierarchy, Jimmy Breslin found it impossible to reconcile his faith with this new reality. Ever the reporter, he visited many victims of molestation by priests and found lives in emotional chaos. He questioned the bishops and found an ossified clergy that has a sense of privilege and entitlement. Thus disillusioned with his church, though not with his faith, he writes about the loss of moral authority yet uses his trademark mordant humor to good effect.

Breslin's righteous anger is put to use. Imagining a renewed church, along with practical solutions such as married priests and female priests, The Church That Forgot Christ also reminds us that Christ wore sandals, not gold vestments and rings, and that ultimately what the Catholic Church needs most is a healthy dose of Christianity. In that sense, Breslin has written a dark book that is full of hope and possibility. It is a book that only Jimmy Breslin could have written.

The book that inspired Harrison Ford in his portrayal of Branch Rickey in the hit movie 42

In a brilliant match between author and subject, this latest addition to the Penguin Lives series features the inimitable Jimmy Breslin telling the rags-to-riches tale of Branch Rickey, the legendary manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers who integrated baseball by putting Jackie Robinson into the major leagues. Moving from the dusty Midwest towns where Rickey built baseball's farm system to the Brooklyn streets where he hatched his most famous plan, Breslin brilliantly captures the heady days when baseball became the national pastime. What emerges is the irresistible story of a schemer and redeemer, a great American who remade a sport-and dreamed of remaking a country. See Branch Rickey's life brought to the screen in the hit movie 42 in theaters everywhere now.

Riding in a helicopter with the Beatles ... Overhearing Jackie Kennedy's conversation with the priest who administered last rites to JFK ... Falling in love at first sight (in a Queens bar) with a woman he would marry ... Catching Joe McCarthy in a lie...Surviving a Brooklyn race riot ... Running for public office in New York City (on a ticket with Norman Mailer) ...These are among the moments that Jimmy Breslin recalls, movingly and hilariously, in his acclaimed memoir -- a book written with all the brashness, candor, and style that have distinguished Breslin's newspaper columns and made him one of the most admired and enjoyed journalists of our time.The starting point: the almost accidental discovery that Breslin required brain surgery. What then unfolds, as Breslin weighs his medical options, is the story of a life crowded with memorable moments and memorable characters -- not least of all, Breslin himself.

Here, back in print, is Jimmy Breslin's marvelous account of the improbable saga of the New York Mets' first year, as Bill Veeck notes in his Introduction, preserving for all time a remarkable tale of ineptitude, mediocrity, and abject failure. Indeed the 1962 Mets were the worst major league baseball team ever to take the field. (The title of the book is a quote from Casey Stengel, their manager at the time.) Breslin casts the Mets, who lost 120 games out of a possible 162 that year, as a lovable bunch of losers. And, he argues, they were good for baseball, coming as a welcome antidote to the era of the businessman in sports...as dry and agonizing a time as you would want to see. Although they were written forty years ago, many of Breslin's comments will strike a chord with today's sports fan, fed up with the growing commercialism of the games. Against this trend Breslin sets the exploits of Marvelous Marv Throneberry, Stengel, and the rest of the hapless Mets.
Wonderful.--Charles Salzberg, New York Times.
A touching, enjoyable, and interesting addition to anybody's sports reading list.--Patrick Conway

Sunny Jim: The Life Of America's Most Beloved Horseman, James Fitzsimmons is a biography written by Jimmy Breslin. The book tells the story of James Fitzsimmons, who is considered to be one of the greatest horse trainers in American history. Fitzsimmons was born in 1874 in Ireland and immigrated to the United States as a young boy. He began working with horses at a young age and quickly developed a talent for training them. Fitzsimmons went on to train some of the most famous racehorses in American history, including Gallant Fox and his son, Omaha, who both won the Triple Crown. He also trained Seabiscuit, one of the most popular racehorses of all time. The book delves into Fitzsimmons' personal life, including his relationships with his family and his struggles with alcoholism. It also explores the world of horse racing in the early 20th century, including the politics and corruption that were rampant in the industry at the time. Through interviews with Fitzsimmons' family members, friends, and colleagues, as well as extensive research, Breslin paints a vivid picture of Sunny Jim's life and legacy. The book is a tribute to a man who was not only a great horseman but also a beloved figure in American sports history.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Of course Pulitzer Prize winner Jimmy Breslin recognized Burton Kaplan right away as the Mafia witness of the ages. Breslin comes from the same Queens streets as mob bosses John Gotti and Vito Genovese. But even they couldn't match Kaplan in crime--and neither could anybody else.

In his inimitable New York voice, Breslin, the city's steadiest and most accurate chronicler (Tom Robbins, Village Voice), gives us a look through the keyhole at the people and places that define the mafia--characters like Sammy The Bull Gravano, Gaspipe Casso (named for his weapon of choice), Thomas Three-Finger Brown Lucchese, and Jimmy The Clam Eppolito, interwoven with the good rat himself, Burt Kaplan of Bensonhurst, the star witness in the recent trial of two New York City detectives indicted for acting as hit men in eight gangland executions.

Breslin takes us to the old-time hangouts like Pep McGuire's, the legendary watering hole where reporters and gangsters (all hailing from the same working-class neighborhoods) rubbed elbows and traded stories; the dog-fight circles and body dumps at Ozone Park; and the back room at Midnight Rose's candy store, where Murder, Inc., hired and fired.

Most compelling of all, Breslin captures the moments in which the Mafia was made and broken--Breslin was there the night John Gotti celebrated his acquittal at his Ravenite Social Club on Mulberry, having bribed his way to inno-cence only to incite the wrath of the FBI, who would later crush Gotti and others with the full force of the RICO laws.

As in his unforgettable novel The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, Breslin brings together these real-life and long-forgotten Mafia stories to brilliantly create a sharp-eyed portrait of the mob as it lived and breathed, as it sounded and survived.