This article is about the 1952 novel. For the 1984 film based on the novel, see The Natural (film). For other uses, see The Natural (disambiguation).
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Novel by Bernard Malamud
The Natural
Cover page of The Natural (first edition)
Author
Bernard Malamud
Cover artist
Simon Goltche
Country
United States
Language
English
Publisher
Harcourt Brace and Company
Publication date
August 21, 1952[1]
Media type
Print (hardback & paperback)
OCLC
11868356
Followed by
The Assistant (1957)
The Natural is a 1952 novel about baseball by Bernard Malamud, and is his debut novel. The story follows Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy whose career is sidetracked after being shot by a woman whose motivation remains mysterious. The story mostly concerns his attempts to return to baseball later in life, when he plays for the fictional New York Knights with his self-made bat "Wonderboy".
Based upon the bizarre shooting incident and subsequent comeback of Philadelphia Phillies player Eddie Waitkus,[2] the story of Roy Hobbs takes some poetic license and embellishes what was truly a strange, but memorable, account of a career lost too soon. Apart from the fact that both Waitkus and fictional Hobbs were shot by women, there are few if any other similarities. It has been alternately suggested by historian Thomas Wolf that the shooting incident might have been inspired by Chicago Cubs shortstop Billy Jurges,[3][4] who was shot by a showgirl with whom he was romantically linked, but there has been no evidence to support this claim.
A film adaptation, The Natural, starring Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs, was released in 1984.
^"Books Published Today". The New York Times: 17. August 21, 1952.
^Lalli (June 14, 2011). "This Day in Philly Sports History: A Demented Fan and the Natural". Retrieved May 30, 2012. - Ted Cox (May 4, 2012). "Chicago sports tragedies: off the field". Retrieved May 30, 2012.
^Wolf, Thomas (2020). The Called Shot: Babe Ruth, the Chicago Cubs, and the Unforgettable Major League Baseball Season of 1932. University of Nebraska Press.
^Al Yellon (January 8, 2007). "The Top 100 Cubs Of All Time – #42 Billy Jurges". Retrieved May 30, 2012.
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