Orr, Bobby

Orr: My Story

New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2013. First Edition. Hardcover. Signed by Hockey Legend Bobby Orr. "Bobby Orr is often referred to as one of the greatest to ever play the game of hockey. From his rookie year in 1966 through the mid-1970s, he could change a game just by stepping on the ice. No defenseman had ever played the way he did, received so many trophies, or set so many records, several of which still stand today. // But all the brilliant achievements and accolades leave unsaid as much as they reveal. They don't tell what inspired Orr, who taught him, what drove him, what it was like for a shy small-town kid to suddenly land in the full glare of the media. They don't tell you what it was like when the agent he regarded as a brother betrayed him and left him in financial ruin, at the same time his battered knee left him unable to play the game he himself had redefined. They don't tell what he thinks of the state of the game of hockey today: the training, fundamentals, coaches, agents, money, or--most important--the passion. // He is speaking out now because 'I am a parent and a grandparent and I believe that I have lessons worth passing on.' 'Orr: My Story' is more than a book about hockey--it is about the making of a man." (from Flap Copy). This is one for the sports fans. Trust me, that's not a recurring sentence in the curations of items you'll find at Third Mind Books. That considered, Your Devoted Assistant Curator--being the proud Ann Arborite (& UofM football fan) that he is--was and has recently re-become such a fan, reunited by illumination & newly considerate of their indisputable metaphorical relevance to all human endeavors. There are individual lives an astute surveyor of success can look to isolate the parallels, paradigms, and threading points between the otherwise unrelated successes of, say, hockey legend Bobby Orr (b. 1948) and Allen Ginsberg. This author would argue that such confluent points are found in a work like Bobby Orr's "My Story," who seeks in this here work to speak to "values" and "motivation," "inspiration" and the people who helped and pushed him. This book, then, finally records not what happened on the ice, not how Bobby Orr got there, but "...who I met along the way and what I learned from them." This copy is additionally signed at title page by the hockey legend at title page; Orr's signature, in thin, black pen ink, reads: "Bobby Orr." [ISBN: 978-0-399-16175-9]. Hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket: First Edition, with no reference to other editions at copyright page; First Printing, as indicated by number sequence thereon. From the collection of George V. Buehler (1933-2020), who was a prominent real estate developer & collector in Massachusetts & Arizona. We found & have retained Buehler's original receipt for purchase of this item, along with several printed-out documents relating to his subsequent research on it. Book in very fine condition, essentially as new, with virtually no evidence of shelf-wear to fine-edges. Dust-jacket in equally very fine condition, with only the scantest evidence of shelf-wear (to bottommost, topmost fine-edge) at spine-edge of dust-jacket. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #4921]

Price: $35.00