Arnold Palmer: American Hero is the seventh book in our large coffee table book series on the greats in the game. In addition to our definitive history of the Ryder Cup published in conjunction with the PGA of America, we have also published large lavishly produced coffee table books in this format on - Ben Hogan (2), Bobby Jones, Byron Nelson and Jack Nicklaus.The book features wonderfully crafted essays on different aspects of Arnie's life in the front third of the book with game-day coverage of each of his biggest tournaments in the back two-thirds.
As with all our books, our book on Arnie sports a real cloth cover with gold foil stamping and a laminated and embossed dust jacket. To achieve the utmost in quality reproduction, the book has been printed in five colors in Italy on some of the finest printing papers available by one of the world's most renown printers. Even the black-and-white photos are color separated to ensure the utmost in fidelity.
Once again, we've assembled an all-star cast of essayists, each writing on different aspects of Arnie's life, but for this book we assembled 21 featured essayists in all, instead of the usual five or six. There were just so many fascinating - and wholly unknown - facets to Arnie's life that just begged coverage. It seems that every time we would investigate one aspect of his life, we'd find two more to delve into. The further we looked, we'd add another essay or two as the book just kept getting bigger and bigger - and we do believe - better and better.
Consider a sampling of the featured essayists - Marino Parascenzo (former president of the Golf Writers Association of America), Doc Giffen (Arnold's right-hand man since the mid 1960s), Jaime Diaz (Golf Channel), John Hopkins (The Times of London), Dan Hicks (who covered Arnie's tournament for NBC for over 25 years), Ron Green, Jr. (Global Golf Post), Charlie Mechem (former LPGA Commissioner), Ron Sirak (the Associated Press and Golf Digest), Jay Monahan (PGA TOUR Commissioner), Kelly Tilghman (Golf Channel), Adam Schupak (Golf World), Peter Jacobsen (PGA TOUR and NBC), Nancy Lopez (LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame) and numerous others. Even Arnie's close friend Gary Player crafted a very personal forward with much new and revelatory information about their relationship - you'll laugh, you'll smile and you may even get a bit teary.
It's certainly an All Star cast of contributors.
As with our earlier coffee table books on the greats of the game, the back two-thirds of the book features extensive take-outs with numerous large photos - along with the game day stories on every significant event in Arnie's life - all the big wins as well as the many heartbreaking close calls too.
Significantly, also included are several multi-page instructional gatefold spreads throughout the book including an analysis of Arnie's full swing by noted golf instructor Jim McLean, an analysis of his putting by putting-guru Brad Faxon and a large gatefold - folding out to almost six feet - featuring Arnie's seven Ryder Cup wins. There's even a gatefold depicting each of Tiger's eight wins at Arnie's own PGA TOUR event at Bay Hill.
Without doubt, it certainly is a book of the very highest caliber.