Great Men Die Twice: The Selected Works of Mark Kram

I had heard from multiple sources, including Thomas Hauser (whom I greatly respect) that Mark Kram was a great boxing writer, perhaps even the best. Now having read his work, I have to give the perhaps unsatisfactory answer that it's true and it isn't true to say he's the best (and even a qualified, schizo answer like that means something coming from someone who's read a ton of writing on the sweet science).Kram's essays on Muhammad Ali are the best I've ever read about boxing's most rhapsodized star. Kram understands the myth of Ali, but he also sees through it to the man behind the idea of Ali that we all carry with us. Usually when a book by a sports writer features so many articles about non-combatants (as this collection does), I end up feeling cheated. But Kram's essay about Marlon Brando is the most astute and eerily insightful thing I've ever read not only about the enigmatic Brando, but about the human ego. Kram's short works are filled with so much insight and beautiful language that, after ten pages or so, the reader feels like they've just closed out a read of a great, long novel.That said, Kram's "kitchen sink" approach to the superlative, his tendency toward colorful and melodramatic language, can be a bit wearing at times. Even his son acknowledges this in the intro to the book, noting that some of his dad's work doesn't stand the test of time. Kram reminds me of Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury in that way, two other great writers who sometimes allowed something sentimental and overwrought to sneak into their work and undermine what was great about their writing.What's good in this book more than compensates for what's pedestrian or wearing. Kram's writing is like the city of Los Angeles: You got to see it at least once, whether you love it or hate it. I just wish Amazon allowed "half-stars" into their rating systems, because this one probably deserves four-and-a-half. Recommended.

Although admittedly lacking an adequate contemporary yardstick in which to gage (I regretfully read Sports Illustrated only rarely today; not out of spite but purely out of neglect, the internet fulfilling my sports reporting appetite more than adequately), I’m nonetheless willing to wager that the incomparably high standards and rarefied literary atmosphere in which Mark Kram Sr. wrote while toiling alongside contemporaries and future luminaries Roy Blount Jr., Frank Deford and Dan Jenkins, isn’t nearly as competitive or as consequential at the “magazine” today.And as a result of that literarily creative environment, these talented mid-1960s reporters were allowed to expand their art, essentially unchecked, to produce pieces of pure literary grace, with Mark Kram in particular becoming adept at capturing and broadening what I’d call the “Sports Illustrated Style.” Whether covering a featured event (most often the lead into and denouement of affairs between Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier), or a discourse on an obscure non-sports related subject, Kram possessed the unique ability to mesmerize while elevating his subject regardless of topic. And fortunate for us, his son, Mark Kram Jr., an author of some renown himself, recognized his father’s genius and collected much of his best work and published it in this wonderful book “Great Men Die Twice.”The wars between Ali and Frazier clearly brought out the best in Kram and these pieces are the obvious selling points for this book, but it is the non-boxing essays that really expose the extent of Kram’s talent. Whether chronicling diverse subjects such as barrel riding over Niagara Falls, the inner psyche of hurdler Edwin Moses, the saga of former Negro League legend Cool Papa Bell or my particular favorite, a fictionalized first person account of former Major League great Hack Wilson, from the dead, maligning the fact that he’d not been elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame (this was a 1977 Sports Illustrated feature that pre-dated Wilson’s actual election to the Hall in 1979, with many pointing to this article as the convincing motive that pushed the Hall’s Veteran’s Committee to finally relent and elect Wilson), Kram displays a much wider literary capacity than his genre typically represents.With visionary writing like this 1992 Esquire article warning of the long term effects of professional football violence, Kram not only entertained but “reported,” writing about important developments in a style and voice far beyond the daily beat writer; his was sports writing with soul, with thought, with a purpose that not only communicated a message but transcended mere journalism:“Admittedly, it is not easy to control a game that is inherently destructive to the body. Tip the rules to the defense, and you have nothing more than gang war; move them too far toward the offense, and you have mostly conflict without resistance. Part of the NFL dilemma is in its struggle between illusion and reality; it wants to stir the blood without you really absorbing that it IS blood. It also luxuriates in its image of the American war game, strives to be the perfect metaphor for Clausewitz’s ponderings about real-war tactics (circa 1819, i.e. stint on blood and you lose). The warrior ethic is central to the game, and no coach or player can succeed without astute attention to the precise fashioning of a warrior mentality (loss of self), defined by Ernie Barnes, formerly of the Colts and the Chargers, as ‘the aggressive nature that knows no safety zones.’”To become truly entranced by a bygone and ethereal sports writing era, a style that has unfortunately been replaced by the turbulent minute-to-minute update of our modern culture, read this now obscure work of one of our truly great sports writers and be enthralled by the span of this man’s talent. Whether interested in the history of the Ali-Frazier saga or great sports writing in general, you will not find better than “Great Men Die Twice.”

This is nothing less than a treasure chest of remarkable writing by a gentlemen the esteemed Frank Deford thought was the best magazine nonfiction writer in America. Sort of like Gordie Howe calling you his toughest opponent. Kram's profile of star crossed soccer icon George Best alone is worth the price of this volume as it serves as both a magnifying glass for and crystal ball of the Man United wingers brilliant on field ballet and inevitable self destructive denouement. This is a volume I savor and is on bedside table reserved for the few sports writers in his league whose number include Ring Lardner and his boys, John Schulian, Frank Deford, Bob Ryan, Jim Murray, Ray Fitzgerald, Leigh Montville, Glenn Stout, Bill Heinz, Red Smith, Charlie Pierce,George Kimball, Brian Glanville, Simon Kuper, and David Halberstam among others.

If you like sports at all, you will love this book. It takes you on journeys and into lives, bright, dark and rich, of sports heroes and villains we all thought we knew. I wasn't familiar with Mark Kram's work until I read this book. How much I missed over the years. I love a good book. I'm a fan of the written word. When I "discover" someone altogether original I just have to share it. And Mark Kram was an unquestioned "original". Cerebral and heartfelt, his style is his alone and you can't help but keep turning those pages. How proud he must be with the work of his son in making this book possible. So worth a few hours of your time you won't want back! Can't recommend it more highly.

Mark Kram is an outstanding writer. If you're interested in sports from the '60s and '70s, this book is for you.

Mark Kram was a great sports writer. I'm enjoying rereading pieces I read years ago, and reading others for the first time.

A little dated, but great writing

Kram at his best is a peerless stylist.