Pierce, Charles P. 1953–

views updated

Pierce, Charles P. 1953–

PERSONAL:

Born December 28, 1953, in Worcester, MA; married; children: three. Education: Marquette University, B.A. (journalism), 1975.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Boston, MA. Office—c/o Esquire Magazine, 300 W. 57th St., 21st Fl., New York, NY 10019.

CAREER:

Journalist. Former forest ranger in Massachusetts; former journalist in Milwaukee, WI; National Public Radio (NPR), broadcaster for Only a Game, panelist for Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me; writer-at-large for Esquire, 1997—writer for Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, 2002—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Finalist for awards for best column, Association Press Sports Editors; finalist, National Magazine Award, 1996, for "In the Country of My Disease;" National Headliners Award, 2004, for "Deconstructing Ted."

WRITINGS:

Hard to Forget: An Alzheimer's Story, Random House (New York, NY), 2000.

Sports Guy: In Search of Corkball, Warroad Hockey, Hooters Golf, Tiger Woods, and the Big, Big Game, Da Capo (New York, NY), 2001.

Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit of Everything, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2006.

Work represented in anthologies, including Best American Sportswriting. Author of sports column, Boston Herald; former columnist and feature writer, Na-tional. Contributor to periodicals, including American Prospect, Atlantic Monthly, Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, Chicago Tribune, Gentleman's Quarterly, Los Angeles Times, Nation, New York Times, Worcester Press, and Village Voice. Contributor to online journals, including Slate and BookSense.com.

SIDELIGHTS:

Charles P. Pierce is a journalist whose book-length publications include Hard to Forget: An Alzheimer's Story, an account of a parent's affliction with Alzheimer's disease. In addition to charting his father's decline, Pierce reflects on his own behavior while his father succumbed to Alzheimer's. "My dad sort of went flat," Pierce told Flak interviewer Ben Welch. "The difficult part was realizing after he was dead that I hadn't dealt with it very well." Pierce also relates how his mother's angry reaction to his father's illness influenced family dynamics. William Beatty wrote in Booklist that Pierce "discloses how his mother refused to recognize her husband's gradual decline and became furious with any family members or friends who drew her attention to it."

Hard to Forget won praise as an insightful memoir. A Flak reviewer affirmed that Pierce "instructs on a personal level and informs on a scientific level," and a Publishers Weekly critic declared that Pierce's book constitutes "a notable contribution to the growing literature on" Alzheimer's disease. The Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded by lauding Hard to Forget as an "excellent memoir." Another reviewer, Bonnie Schiedel, wrote in Chatelaine that the book is "part gripping scientific exploration, part poignant memoir." Karen McNally Bensing stated in Library Journal that Pierce's book serves as "a refreshing change from most feel-good, first-person Alzheimer's accounts," and a Science News critic deemed the book "poignant but hopeful." More praise came from William Beatty, who described Pierce in a Booklist review as "an imaginative but restrained writer" and called Hard to Forget "a first-rate description of the effects of the disease."

Sports Guy: In Search of Corkball, Warroad Hockey, Hooters Golf, Tiger Woods, and the Big, Big Game is a loose collection of essays on topics ranging from the famous golfer of the subtitle and Magic Johnson to rambling tales of little-known or unknown coaches and athletes Pierce has met during his journalism career. In Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit of Everything Pierce examines the career of one of the National Football League's premier quarterbacks. A sixth-round draft choice out of the University of Michigan, Brady took the helm of the New England Patriots as a rookie and led the team to three Super Bowl titles in four years. In his work, Pierce focuses on the Patriots' arduous 2005 season, which ended in a disappointing playoff loss. According to a critic in Kirkus Reviews, the author "provides sharp descriptions of in-game action and humorous asides that help keep the game in perspective despite hyperbolic rhetoric from the quarterback's teammates, coaches and opponents," and Mary Frances Wilkens, writing in Booklist, stated that "Pierce converts what might have been just another sports bio into an engaging character study."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 2000, William Beatty, review of Hard to Forget: An Alzheimer's Story, p. 1419; September 1, 2006, Mary Frances Wilkens, review of Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit of Everything, p. 48.

Chatelaine, April, 2000, Bonnie Schiedel, review of Hard to Forget, p. 17.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2006, review of Moving the Chains, p. 890.

Library Journal, April 15, 2000, Karen McNally Bensing, review of Hard to Forget, p. 117.

Publishers Weekly, March 13, 2000, review of Hard to Forget, p. 74; September 4, 2006, review of Moving the Chains, p. 48.