Mark Harris, author of the acclaimed baseball novel “Bang the Drum Slowly,” which he adapted for the 1973 movie starring Michael Moriarty and Robert De Niro, has died. He was 84.
A retired Arizona State University professor of English who lived in Goleta, Calif., Mr. Harris died of complications related to Alzheimer’s disease Wednesday, said his son, Henry Harris.
The author of 13 novels and five non-fiction books, Mr. Harris was best known for his four baseball novels narrated by Henry Wiggen, the ace left-handed pitcher for the fictional New York Mammoths: “The Southpaw” (1953), “Bang the Drum Slowly” (1956), “A Ticket for a Seamstitch” (1957) and “It Looked Like For Ever” (1979).
“Bang the Drum Slowly,” named one of the top 100 sports books of all time by Sports Illustrated, was the most popular of the four.
The tragicomic tale of Wiggen and catcher Bruce Pearson, who is dying of Hodgkin’s disease, “Bang the Drum Slowly” was adapted for a live 1956 segment of “The U.S. Steel Hour,” starring Paul Newman as Wiggen and Albert Salmi as Pearson. In the movie version, Moriarty played Wiggin and De Niro played Pearson.
The novel also was adapted as a stage play.
Cordelia Candelaria, author of “Seeking the Perfect Game: Baseball in American Literature,” has rated Harris’ “The Southpaw” and “Bang the Drum Slowly” among the top five baseball novels ever written.
Candelaria, who taught creative writing at Arizona State, said Harris’ contribution to American literature was not limited to his baseball writing. His greatest influence, she said, was through the character of Wiggen.
“He’s every bit as permanent and important as Huckleberry Finn, as Ishmael and Ahab in ‘Moby Dick,’ and as Nick Adams in Hemingway’s short stories,” Candelaria said.
Although his father is “most widely recognized for his baseball literature,” Henry Harris said, “there are other novels in his canon that he felt were equally validating of what was important to him: He was a lifelong pacifist and proponent of racial justice.”
Mr. Harris’ first novel, “Trumpet to the World,” about a young black man who marries a well-to-do white girl, was published in 1946.
Born Mark Harris Finkelstein in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., on Nov. 19, 1922, Mr. Harris legally changed his name in the 1940s when, his son said, “he was advised that his career as a writer would take better root if he did not go by a Jewish name.”
After serving in the Army during World War II, Mr. Harris worked as a newspaper and wire service reporter and as a writer for Negro Digest and Ebony.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Denver in 1950, followed by a master’s in English a year later. He received his doctoral degree in American studies from the University of Minnesota in 1956.
In addition to his son Henry, Mr. Harris is survived by his wife of 61 years, Josephine Horen; his daughter, Hester Harris, and another son, Anthony.
