Jackie Robinson

The year was 1947. A talented young minor-league baseball player was called up to the majors to join the Brooklyn Dodgers. But this was no ordinary man, nor any simple achievement. This was Jackie Robinson: an all-around star athlete, a U.S. Army veteran-and a black man. Until that year, baseball's shameful color line had kept African Americans out of the big leagues. Overcoming prejudice, exclusion, and even hatred, Jackie Robinson broke that line and became one of the game's best players. He was recognized in the Hall of Fame, and he inspired many young people to fight segregation and ignorance for the chance to follow their dreams. Through both his career and his character, Jackie Robinson became one of America's greatest heroes. This is his story.

Joe Schuster's short fiction has appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Iowa Review, and The Missouri Review, among others, and his articles have been published in USA Today, St. Louis Post Dispatch and the revered, retired Sport. The New York Times Book Review described his novel The Might-Have Been as a "meticulously peopled tale of opportunities lost." Publishers Weekly said "Schuster examines, without succumbing to sentiment or an easy resolution, the cost of chasing a dream." Jackie Robinson is Joe's second book in the Gemma Open Door Series, following the success of One Season in the Sun.