A short life of the author
H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger (b. 1954) was born on 1 November 1954 in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting at the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1987.
Life and Career
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (1990) — for which Bissinger moved to Odessa, Texas, for a year to follow the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers, one of the most storied high school football programs in America — transcends sports writing. It is a portrait of a town consumed by football: the economic decline of the Permian Basin oil industry, racial tensions, the pressure placed on seventeen-year-old boys, and the question of whether a community’s obsession with high school athletics is sustaining or destructive. The book was initially reviled in Odessa (residents felt betrayed) and celebrated everywhere else.
The 2004 film, starring Billy Bob Thornton, and the NBC television series (2006–2011), created by Peter Berg, brought the story to a wider audience. The TV series, set in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, is widely regarded as one of the finest dramas in television history.
A Prayer for the City (1997) — about Ed Rendell’s first term as mayor of Philadelphia — was a major work of political journalism. Three Nights in August (2005) was about baseball manager Tony La Russa.
Key Works
- Friday Night Lights (1990)
- A Prayer for the City (1997)
- Three Nights in August (2005)
Collecting Bissinger
Friday Night Lights (1990, Addison-Wesley) brings $30–$80 for firsts.