Henry Wiggen

Henry Wiggen was a fictional baseball player who was the subject of four novels by Mark Harris: The Southpaw (1953), Bang the Drum Slowly (1956), A Ticket for a Seamstitch (1957), and It Looked Like For Ever (1979). Wiggen, who was born on July 4, 1931[1] in Perkinsville, New York,[2] joined the fictitious "New York Mammoths" in 1952[3] as a pitcher. His teammates nicknamed him "Author", because he was always writing.

Not to be confused with Henry Wiggin.

Critical reception

The Columbia Daily Spectator has described Wiggen as having a "complex character", saying that he "epitomizes the American spirit of 'never say die,'"[4] while Gerald Peary says that of all the fictional baseball players in American literature, Wiggen is the only one who "matters beyond the page" and "hangs on in the reader's thoughts, season after season;"[5] he also notes Wiggen's propensity for malapropisms and poor grammar, comparing him to "Dizzy Dean with a typewriter".[5]

Media portrayals

Henry Wiggen has been portrayed on television by Paul Newman[6] (in the 1956 United States Steel Hour adaptation of Bang the Drum Slowly),[7] and on film by Michael Moriarty (in the 1973 film adaptation of the same novel).[3]

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References
  1. The Southpaw, by Mark Harris, 1953; published by the Bobbs-Merrill Company
  2. Imagining Baseball: America's Pastime and Popular Culture, by David McGimpsey, published January 2000 by the University of Indiana Press
  3. Henry Wiggen is still bringing the heat, by Ivan Maisel, at ESPN; published July 11, 2007; retrieved July 24, 2014
  4. HARRIS: It Looked Like For Ever, by Mark Harris, reviewed by Evan Charkes; in the Columbia Daily Spectator; volume CIV; number 55; page 6; published December 3, 1979; retrieved July 25, 2014
  5. Diamonds In The Rough – Mark Harris (An Interview with the writer of Bang the Drum Slowly), originally published in The Real Paper (Boston), October 27, 1979 (p. 5, 8 ,9); archived at GeraldPeary.com; retrieved July 25, 2014
  6. Paul Newman: A Life, by Shawn Levy; published September 25, 2010, by Aurum Press (via Google Books)
  7. Scene From 'Bang The Drum Slowly' (Caption:American actors (left to right) Paul Newman as Henry Wiggen, Albert Salmi (1928 - 1990) as Bruce Pierson, and Georgann Johnson as Holly, appear in a scene from the United States Steel Hour production of 'Bang the Drum Slowly' which aired September 26, 1956), at Getty Images; retrieved July 25, 2014
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