In this week's edition of Endnotes, we take a look at the late Chuck Klosterman's Football, an eye-opening and entertaining cultural history. In its review, PW calls it "a transcendent appraisal of America’s favorite sport."
Here's how the book came together:
Chuck Klosterman
“The way it works for me—and this was true for most of my previous books as well—is that I unconsciously think about something for many years, and then I suddenly and spontaneously realize that the thing I’ve been thinking about is potentially a book. In this case, I’d been daydreaming about the meaning of football for over 40 years.”
Daniel Greenberg
“I’ve represented all of Chuck’s books except for his first, Fargo Rock City. When his original agent left the business, we started working together. It’s been almost 25 years. I knew that Chuck had been wanting to write a book on football for many years. When the book was finished and I read the draft, it exceeded my high expectations. This is one of his best books.”
Scott Moyers
“Chuck’s The Nineties is as much about a historical shift in how we live in time as it is about anything else. And this book is about how this odd game now forms some strong bars of our psychic cage, even if we hate football. And how that might be fine! Mostly. Maybe.”
Darren Haggar
“The cover design concept came from the author—an homage to the cover of the first football bible by Walter Camp and Lorin F. Deland, published in 1896. I worked with Tatyana Alanis on this project, who wonderfully illustrated the two football players on the cover. The art and type are foil stamped onto a red cloth.”
