• The Novel for the Adolescent:

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/807711?uid=3739912&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101111105901

  • Kidsport, the work of JR Tunis:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1983.1703_146.x/abstract

John R, Tunis edit

"Tunis was a master at getting at the psychological and social dilemmas that confront athletes."[1]: 3 

"attention to detail, description and authenticity"http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Im_I_7j4VDcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR14&dq=%22John+R.+Tunis%22&ots=LrfDfo0X5j&sig=O_bRXXLHH6YL8i4nn1NAcvPJMtI#v=snippet&q=Tunis&f=false: 28 

Keystone Kids edit

"While the two youngsters, especially the older brother Spike, shine in their brief tenure, the Dodgers lose out partly because of disharmony among some of the stars. This inter-squad antagonism re-emerges early in the following season. The frugal, dutiful, perseverant brothers are amazed—and disgusted—by the behavior and attitudes of several outstanding Dodgers: overpaid, self-centered, hyper-critical of "rival" teammates. (Incidentally, in this aspect of professional athletes, Tunis is way ahead of his times; c.f. Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield, Ken Griffey, Jr., at al.)"[2]

A City for Lincoln edit

"May give insight into the workings of American political machines more tellingly than actual work with such a machine"[3]: 132–133 

His Enemy edit

"His Enemy, His Friend: A Novel of Global Conscience": Loretta Stark

Themes edit

fav theme "ind who learns to subj his ego for the good of the team"http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=u9lbduSl48MC&oi=fnd&pg=PA13&dq=%22John+R.+Tunis%22+wimbledon&ots=DlUHERgbrl&sig=0j8ALRAygq78x0egevOh0YBw5s0#v=onepage&q=Tunis&f=false: 18 

Keystone Kids " 'These were some of the things Spike did not know about his team, the team that was lost and found itself. For now they were a team, all of them. Thin and not so thin, tall and short, strong and not so strong, solemn and excitable, Calvinist and Covenanter, Catholic and Lutheran, Puritan and Jew, these were the elements that, fighting, clashing and jarring at first, then slowly mixing, blending, refining, made up a team. Made up America.' (Keystone Kids 198) It can, therefore, be stated conclusively that Keystone Kids is much more than just a baseball yarn. One of its salient features is the cultural make-up, conflicts, and unresolved issues of the United States, circa 200l."[2]

"The weight of evidence therefore suggests that Red Sanders originated this quote in the 1930s. John Tunis, writing in popular magazines in the early 1930s, lamented that Americans were no longer interested in sports for sports sake, or in sportsmanship, but instead were obsessed with winning at any cost."http://www.aafla.org/SportsLibrary/FootballStudies/1999/FS0202h.pdf: 83 

ANTI-PROFESSIONALISM: 1920's idolization of sports heroes growing, and why: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1983.1604_11.x/abstract

"John R. Tunis once stressed sport as educationally valuable: sport inculcates IIdemocratic ethics." (31) In the next decade Tunis saw precious little high morality in sport because of American zeal to compete and be successful, to win and break records. Professionalism breeds sport that is "a first-class training ground for a jungle societ~n (32) Genuine sport, by contrast, is what is taught by a multitude of nameless, faceless coaches and recreation directors: "poise, 21 coordination, ~ sense of beauty, and ~ feeling for their bodies, as well as skills beyond measure."http://la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JPS/JPS1974/JPS01d.pdf

"Tunis rejected the notion that organized sport was a morally edifying institution. He blamed the press for blowing up the importance of athletics to the point where “there has grown up in the public mind an exaggerated and sentimental notion of the moral value of these great competitive spectacles of sport, a fiction which may be termed The Great Sports Myth.” He complained that “the sporting heroes of the nation are our gods” and worried that the amount of energy devoted to athletics would have detrimental effects on society. “Man has always, I suppose, been a hero worshipper,” Tunis admitted grudgingly. The United States had no religious prophets to exalt, nor a royalty admire, nor even a Mussolini to erect as a national icon. “Consequently we turn hopefully to the world of sports ,” he theorized. People in mass society needed to identify with individuals who had risen above the bleak routines which marked modern life. Sports stars became the heroes and heroines of consumer culture.34"[4]: 270 


"The most consistently impassioned voice for football purity in the 1920s and 1930s belonged to the journalist John R. Tunis,": 247 http://www.aafla.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH2002/JSH2902/jsh2902h.pdf

Wildcats "In this text, Tunis returns to one of his recurrent themes: the deleterious effects of meddling by affluent adults into schoolboy athletic programs within the community. Sociologists over many decades have analyzed the impact of the "Power Structure" on the direction followed by communities both large and small. In Yea! Wildcats!, the youthful coach Don Henderson is greatly admired by the town's big shots while his team is winning."[2]

"And their feeling about the goodness of physical activity finds interpretation in the sports stories of John Tunis. In all these books the experience recorded leads to a valuation that takes the student beyond what he has already thought. In a book like Tunis' Highpockets the hero finds that his enjoyment of the game is keener after he discovers emotionally that other people exist be. sides himself."[3]: 136 


Legacy additions edit

[2]

[5]

"Tunis' respect for his audience raised the standards for all sports novelists... and cleared the way ...for... important adolescent themes."quoting Crowehttp://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=DjXlpr5-cgwC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=%22John+R.+Tunis%22&ots=pGLCs1OCe0&sig=Jxz__gU-gRhi-czWxMsWz2aM6os#v=onepage&q=Tunis&f=false

"paved the way for Mark Harris' novels"http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=DjXlpr5-cgwC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=%22John+R.+Tunis%22&ots=pGLCs1OCe0&sig=Jxz__gU-gRhi-czWxMsWz2aM6os#v=onepage&q=Tunis&f=false

"Within the genre of adolescent basketball literature, Tunis’s 1944 novel Yea! Wilcats! sets the tone for many recurring themes that revolve around basketball action. Among these themes are relationship issues between parents and child, young adult athlete and coach, the concept of teamwork, and issues involving racism.": 14 

Go, Team, Go "This episode reflects one of Tunis' recurrent themes: the exploitation of amateur athletes by well-healed, well-connected, devious community leaders... Considering the pre-civil rights temper of the times, Tunis' novel gets this writer's nod as pretty gutsy."[2]

"The upbeat, too-good-to-be-true ending of Yea! Wildcats! is representative of most of Tunis' novels. During his lifetime, this was the temper of the times in fiction written for young adults. In spite of his persistently happy endings and his occasional use of melodrama, John R. Tunis is an author whose themes foreshadow those in today's young adult novels which feature teenagers, have sports, and deal with certain sensitive, still-unresolved social issues spilling over into the 21st century.

Inspired Mark Stewart pg 48 http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=EV5y8g4MeOcC&oi=fnd&pg=PA5&dq=%22John+R.+Tunis%22&ots=rXEq2mOdhq&sig=YDYtaj9J7yF77V-QjxcRjzPTgXM#v=onepage&q=Tunis&f=false

Robert Mayer "fiction was dominated by the immortal John R. Tunis"http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=x_NWnRI8k54C&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=%22John+R.+Tunis%22&ots=tyDKtI2kth&sig=wObWtLUON-qMiQb0nIkhArnMYLg#v=onepage&q=%22John%20R.%20Tunis%22&f=false: 8 

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Erickson, Rick. "Rick Erickson's Literacy Stew" (PDF). 1998 Yearbook. American Reading Forum. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e Simmons, John S. (Fall 2001). "John R. Tunis and the Sports Novels for Adolescents: A Little Ahead of His Time". The ALAN Review. 29 (1). doi:10.21061/alan.v29i1.a.14. Retrieved 29 July 2012.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  3. ^ a b Carlson, George Robert (March 1949). "Literature and Emotional Maturity". The English Journal. 38 (3).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  4. ^ Dyreson, Mark (Winter 1989). "The Emergence of Consumer Culture and the Transformation of Physical Culture: American Sport in the 1920s ]" (PDF). Journal of Sport History. 16 (3). Retrieved 28 July 2012.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  5. ^ Crowe, Chris (editor) (July 2001). "Young Adult Literature: Sports Literature for Young Adults". The English Journal. 90 (6): 129–133. doi:10.2307/822081. JSTOR 822081. Retrieved 29 July 2012. {{cite journal}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)

External links edit