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"Pete Maravich: The Authorized Biography of Pistol Pete" is Now Available in Paperback

In 2006, the hardback edition of Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill was published by Sport Classic Books. Maravich's widow Jackie worked with the authors, providing what they called "unfettered access to the Maravich family archive of clippings, films, letters, calendars, diaries and photographs." A year later, without the benefit of such access, Mark Kriegel wrote a Maravich biography titled Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich. The paperback version of Federman and Terrill's book has recently been published by Tyndale; it has been retitled Pete Maravich: The Authorized Biography of Pistol Pete, perhaps to distinguish itself even more clearly from Kriegel's unauthorized book.

Even though the title is different, the paperback edition is largely unchanged from the hardback edition. The most obvious difference is that the newer book has a foreword by Dr. James C. Dobson, who had been playing pickup basketball with Maravich moments before the 40 year old Hall of Famer collapsed and died (Maravich had a congenital heart defect that had never been detected, so it is amazing that he played four years of college ball and 10 years of professional ball).

However, there are a few subtle changes to the text that I very much appreciate and want to publicly acknowledge. As I explained in a November 9, 2006 post titled Dr. J and Pistol Pete on the Same Team, the hardback edition of Maravich lifted a couple Julius Erving quotes from one of my articles without providing proper attribution. When I brought this to Mr. Federman's attention, he apologized and assured me that all future editions of the book would contain the proper attribution. I am delighted to report that this is indeed the case; the paperback edition clearly indicates that the Erving quotes came from my interview with Dr. J. My name was also added to the "Acknowledgments" section at the end of the book.

Sometimes people say that they will right a wrong but they never do, so I appreciate that Mr. Federman was true to his word.

Labels: Julius Erving, Marshall Terrill, Pete Maravich, Wayne Federman

posted by David Friedman @ 4:44 AM

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