Mullane Literary Associates
The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant
- A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
- Chosen by Dwight Garner at The New York Times as one of the Top Ten Books of the Year
- One of GMA’s Top Picks for Great Summer Reading
- Finalist for SABR's 2010 Casey Award
The first full-length profile of Aaron to appear in more than three decades, Howard Bryant’s widely acclaimed biography, The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron, been called “a first-rate biography,” “beautifully written and culturally important,” “illuminating and rigorously researched,” “an epic baseball tale,” “a classic” and “one of the most impressive profiles of a ballplayer in years.”
Praise for Howard Bryant's
The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron
“No one was more important to the game of baseball in the last half of the 20th Century than Henry Aaron and no one writes about that supremely talented man, that tumultuous time and this treasure of a game better than Howard Bryant. Together, they are an extraordinary combination, and the book Bryant has written gets to the heart of the complicated and dignified, patient and consistent genuine hero that is Henry Aaron.”
Ken Burns
“In this beautifully written and culturally important biography, Bryant... tells the Aaron story with gusto and a ferocious sweep. There is plenty of baseball, but just as important the book includes front-office politics and the struggles of those who, like Aaron, came up right behind Jackie Robinson. It is also a deft examination of how white writers and black writers wrote about Aaron ..As for The Last Hero, Bryant may just have given us a classic.”
Wil Haygood, The Washington Post
“Aaron’s is a great American life, and Howard Bryant’s Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron rises confidently to meet it....[Recent] biographies of Mays and Aaron, taken together, are a striking and elegiac assessment of race relations in America during the 20th century. They are elegant portraits, as well, of two different ways of being a man....The volume that’ll be left standing when the major book awards are handed out, though, is Mr. Bryant’s, I suspect. His is the brawny one, the one with serious and complicated swat....The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron had the forceful sweep of a well-struck essay as much as that of a first-rate biography.”
Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“[A] welcome and long-overdue portrait... It easily stands as one of the most impressive profiles of a ballplayer in years.”
“Supported by impressive research and interviews with Aaron’s former teammates, family members, and the Hall of Famer himself... Bryant paints a portrait of a man who grew up and played amid a racially tumultuous period in American history and did so with such an abundance of courage and dignity that he earned the respect of fans, players, and the leadership of Major League Baseball....For baseball junkies, The Last Hero offers enough about ballplayers of the era and the game to amply satisfy. But fortunately this book offers more.”
“Bryant pulls back the curtain to reveal the complexity of a man whose life is defined well beyond the historic event.”
“Just when it seemed as if all the great baseball subjects had been done, Howard Bryant checks in with this biography of Henry Aaron, which, amazingly, Mr. Aaron had to wait 34 years to get. Bryant... is a great writer for a great subject. Mr. Aaron’s story is the epic baseball tale of the second half of the 20th century, in many ways the equal to Jackie Robinson’s.”
“Not just another book on Hank’s prodigious ability to elevate baseballs over the fences, this explores Aaron’s talent in elevating himself, his family, and his community....Bryant evokes the apparently distant world marked by cruel segregation, racism, and poverty of the soul, as well as reliving some of the greatest moments of baseball. A most welcome book, most highly recommended.”
Library Journal, starred review
“One of Howard Bryant’s mentors, the late David Halberstam, encouraged him to ‘bring those great Henry Aaron wrists to life,’ and he has done that and more with this marvelous book. Wrists, legs, heart, brain—here is the full picture of a great man and ballplayer who finally gets his due.”
David Maraniss, author of Clemente
“An eye-opening biography of the Braves’ outfielder, the real home-run king. Baseball’s tainted steroid era has, if anything, bestowed an even brighter shine to Aaron’s on-field achievements, but Bryant makes clear that this slugger’s story was always about more than merely overcoming blazing fastballs....Plenty of baseball for the fan, but even more insight into why Aaron matters beyond the game.”
Kirkus
“We already know Henry Aaron as one of the greatest players in the history of baseball. Now, in Howard Bryant’s impeccably researched and nuanced biography, we know Henry Aaron not just as a great ballplayer, but as a remarkable man...Bryant asks the hard questions and cuts through the myths to create a timeless and unflinching portrait of an American icon and his times.”
Glenn Stout, editor, The Best American Sports Writing
“This is a baseball book for adults, the story of a gifted, complex man and his struggles in our complex country. This is a fascinating and at times a troubling book, which revivified the lovely old game for me.”
Tracy Kidder
“A definitive biography of Mobile native and baseball legend Henry Aaron, one of America’s most compelling sports figures...there may never be a better book on Henry Aaron than Bryant’s The Last Hero.”
About the Author
Howard Bryant, who writes for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine and is a regular on NPR's “Weekend Edition,” is also the author of Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Soul of Major League Baseball and Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston. For information about Howard's tour dates and appearances, go to www.howardbryant.net.
Follow The Last Hero on Facebook.
Hear Howard Bryant talk about his book:
- ESPN's “Mike & Mike”
- ESPN's “Sports Nation”
- NPR's “Weekend Edition” with Scott Simon
- NPR's “Only A Game” with Bill Littlefield