“Red Smith, a small, shy man with a commonplace name, was an uncommonly stylish writer. ... ‘He was not just a great sports writer,’ fellow Pulitzer Prize winner Dave Anderson wrote, ‘he was a great American writer in the class of Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.’ ... For years he wrote 800 to 900 words a day, six days a week. ‘There’s nothing to writing,’ he said. ’All you have to do is sit down at the typewriter and open a vein.’ ... No twirlers, twin killings, or circuit clouts marred Smith’s columns. Leaving behind the overwrought clichés of the genre, he wrote plain and graceful English decorated with humor wherever he could find it. He thought sports was entertainment, and he strove to entertain. ...”
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