This week’s guest on Behind the Lines is legendary American writer and broadcaster, Robert Lipsyte.
Robert has spent decades as a highly-regarded reporter and columnist and has written tens of fiction and nonfiction books. He has won awards in fields other than just sportswriting: he was a Pulitzer Prize runner-up in 1992, an Emmy winner for his current affairs work on television with PBS, and in 2001 was recognised for making a lasting contribution to Young Adult Literature.
He began his career at the New York Times in 1957, where he quickly rose to become a reporter at the age of just 21, his biggest break coming when he was assigned to cover a fight between reigning champ Sonny Liston and an Olympic medalist called Cassius Clay.
We talk about his first meeting with Ali - whom he met with the Beatles - and of how he evolved and changed over time. Ali, says Robert, was not initially a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, but saw how his political awareness evolved and changed over time.
There’s lots more in here too. Robert explains what he learned from Gay Talese at the Times, he discusses sportswriting’s successes and failures in tackling American politics and society, and how it must now change, and he remembers his very first interview with Donald Trump, and how even then he evinced the lies and the narcissicm that now come from the White House.
Robert’s picks were Farewell to Sport, by Paul Gallico and Ball Four, by Jim Bouton.
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