Playing for Keeps

<B>David Halberstam</B> (1934-2007) was the author of twenty-two books, including fifteen bestsellers. Born in New York City, Halberstam spent much of the 1960s as a reporter for the <I>New York Times</I>, covering the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement. His Vietnam reporting earned him both a George C. Polk Award and a 1964 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. <I>Vanity Fair</I> dubbed Halberstam "the Moses of American journalism," and the subjects of his books reflect his passion and range: war, foreign policy, history, and sports.<br><br><I>The Best and the Brightest</I> (1962), his sixth book, a critique of the Kennedy administration's Vietnam policy, became a #1 bestseller. His next book, <I>The Powers that Be</I>, a study of four American media companies, was hailed by the <I>New York Times</I> as a "prodigy of research." Many of Halberstam's books explored themes in professional sports, including bestsellers <I>The Teammates</I>, a portrait of the friendship between baseball players Ted Williams, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Bobby Doerr, and <I>The Education of a Coach</I>, a profile of New England Patriots' Coach Bill Belichick.