Mark Kram

Sports­writer. His name is a palin­drome. Used a Roy­al type­writer. Died June 14, 2002. [NYTimes obit]

The best way to learn about Mark Kram’s life and work is to read the well-writ­ten mem­oir by his son, “For­give Some Sin­ner” (2008).

Writ­ing is like paint­ing. I freeze a scene in my head like a stop-action cam­era, study the col­ors and try to feel the mood. A story is a series of col­or­ful scenes arranged to lead the read­er to what­ev­er it is I aim to say. The more vivid the scene, the bet­ter the story.

[amazonify]0060954809[/amazonify]

Kram said that he want­ed to do in writ­ing what Edward Hop­per did in paint­ing. Def­i­nite­ly New Jour­nal­ism, but avoid­ed first-per­son writ­ing when­ev­er he could. (Any inter­ac­tions with Hunter S. Thomp­son?)

Gale Research pub­lished a [amazonify]B000RY9ZFK::text::::bio[/amazonify] in 2007.

Articles

“A Wink at a Home­ly Girl” (1966 arti­cle about the 1966 World Series for The Bal­ti­more Sun)

Twice-week­ly col­umn, “Anoth­er Day”

“All Gone and Quite For­got­ten”

began writ­ing for Sports Illus­trat­ed [topic/article/Mark_Kram/1900–01-01/2100–12-31/mdd/index.htm”>vault archive]

“No Place in the Shade” (pro­file of Cool Papa Bell, Sports Illus­trat­ed 1973)

“Hard Sell for Some Hard Knocks” (1974) [let­ters]

“Crafty Win for Muham­mad” (1974) [let­ters]

“Why Ain’t I in the Hall?” (1977)

“The Thril­la In Mani­la” (includ­ed in [amazonify]0395945143::text::::The Best Amer­i­can Sports Writ­ing of the Cen­tu­ry[/amazonify])

sports colum­nist for The Wash­ington Times

in lat­er days wrote for Esquire, Play­boy, GQ and Men’s Health

“Great Men Die Twice” (on Muham­mad Ali, for Esquire, 1989)

Lawdy, Lawdy, He’s Great,” Sports Illus­trat­ed, 1999, on Joe Fra­zier and Muhammed Ali.

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Books

[amazonify]B000NQK5IS::text::::Blow Away: A Killer’s Story[/amazonify] (co-authored with a hit man) (Viking 1979)

[amazonify]0688004512::text::::Miles to Go[/amazonify] (a nov­el) (Mor­row, 1982)

[amazonify]0060954809::text::::Ghosts of Mani­la: The Fate­ful Blood Feud Between Muham­mad Ali and Joe Fra­zier[/amazonify] (Harp­er 2001)

Mark Kram Jr

Had a son, Mark Kram Jr, also a sports­writer. He’s “not tech­ni­cal­ly a junior” — the son also writes under the byline Mark Kram. Pro­lif­ic and anthol­o­gized arti­cles (exam­ple: “tory.second.html”>The bru­tal trip down” in The Dal­las Morn­ing News 2003)

Wrote an arti­cle about his father: “For­give Some Sin­ner” by Mark Kram Jr, The Smart Set, 2008 (appeared in [amazonify]0618751181::text::::The Best Amer­i­can Sports Writ­ing 2008[/amazonify]).

For further reading

[amazonify]0060954809[/amazonify] [amazonify]000712645X[/amazonify] [amazonify]B000NQK5IS[/amazonify] [amazonify]0688004512[/amazonify]
[amazonify]B000RY9ZFK[/amazonify] [amazonify]0618751181[/amazonify] [amazonify]0395945143[/amazonify] [amazonify]0395633257[/amazonify]

First published on February 25th, 2009 at 2:03 pm (EST) and last modified on February 26th, 2009 at 12:15 pm (EST).


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