Tribute to David Halberstam

Opus was shocked this week by the news that Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and colleague of the company, David Halberstam tragically lost his life on Monday April 23 in a car accident.

When searching for the writer to create the definitive essay for the Super Bowl Opus, launched December 2006, Mr Halberstam soared above the competition as the logical choice.
David Halberstam received the Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his work as a war correspondent in Vietnam. His examination of the war culminated in The Best and the Brightest (1972), a critical history of American’s entanglement in the Vietnamese conflict. The New York Times called it “the Iliad of the American empire and the Odyssey of this nation’s search for its idealistic soul.”

David Halberstam was also one of American’s leading sportswriters. The Breaks of the Game (1981), an account of an entire year spent with the Portland Trailblazers, was said to be “among the best books ever written on professional basketball” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). The Amateurs (1985), a study of amateur rowing in America, was called “pure reporting on a level undreamt of elsewhere in sports” (The Washington Post). His most recent work included Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World That He Made. The Wall Street Journal said that although Mr. Jordan “has received ample attention. . .Mr. Halberstam is the first to present so complete a picture and offer such fresh insights.”

It was an honour and privilege to have been associated with a true legend of the literary world. Our thoughts go out to David’s family and friends at this incredibly testing time and we leave the last, enlightening words to the man himself:

“It’s been a wonderful life. Actually, when I think about my career I am sometimes stunned. I’m stunned by the richness of it. It gave me all the things I ever wanted.”

David Halberstam 1934-2007
Writer, author, literary legend.