Time’s Top Ten of 2010

The Last Boy was selected as the No. 4 best nonfiction book of 2010 Jane Leavy interviewed Mickey Mantle when she was a young sportswriter and he was a middle-aged alcoholic. He tried to feel her up; then he passed out. Leavy has now written a full-blown biography of...

Interview with Bill Littlefield on It’s Only A Game

For Jane Leavy, Mickey Mantle was a childhood hero. For young Bill Littlefield, Mantle was the second-best centerfielder in New York. Bill speaks to Leavy about her new biography of the Mick, The Last Boy, and shares his own memories of the troubled superstar. Click...

The Last Boy listed in NY Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2010

THE LAST BOY: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood. By Jane Leavy. (Harper/HarperCollins, $27.99.) Many biographies of Mantle have been written, but Leavy connects the dots in new and disturbing ways. Click here for full list

Prospectus Q&A. Part III

In Part III of this three-part interview, Jane Leavy, the author of The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, talks about why Mantle fell short in the 1961 home-run chase, how his life was similar to Babe Ruth’s, and the one question...

Prospectus Q&A, Part II

In Part II, Jane Leavy, the author of The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, talks about Mantle’s relationship with Joe DiMaggio, the mechanics of his swing from both sides of the plate, the cultural meaning of “Willie, Mickey, and the Duke,”—including the question “What if Mantle were black and Mays white?”—and more.