Layden, Joe 1959-

PERSONAL:

Born 1959.

CAREER:

Freelance magazine writer and author.

WRITINGS:

(With Frank Coffey) Thin Ice: The Complete, Uncensored Story of Tonya Harding, America's Bad Girl of Ice Skating, Windsor Publishing (New York, NY), 1994.

Domestic Violence, Millbrook Press (Brookfield, CN), 1995.

The Great American Baseball Strike, Millbrook Press (Brookfield, CN), 1995.

(With Frank Coffey) America on Wheels: The First 100 Years: 1896-1996, General Publishing Group (Los Angeles, CA), 1996.

Dream Team 1996 Scrapbook, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1996.

Return of a Champion: The Monica Seles Story, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1996.

USA Basketball, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Charles Haley) All the Rage: The Life of an NFL Renegade, Andrews McMeel Publishing (Kansas City, MS), 1997.

(With Carl Waldman and Jamy Ian Swiss) The Art of Magic: The Companion to the PBS Special, General Publishing Group (Los Angeles, CA), 1997.

Dribble, Shoot, Score!, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1997.

Meet the Los Angeles Lakers, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1997.

(With James Preller) NBA Game Day, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1997.

Notre Dame Football A-Z, Taylor Publishing (Dallas, TX), 1997.

Women in Sports: The Complete Book on the World's Greatest Female Athletes, General Publishing Group (Los Angeles, CA), 1997.

Kobe: The Story of the NBA's Rising Young Star Kobe Bryant, Harper Paperbacks (New York, NY), 1998.

(With James Preller) Inside the WNBA: A Behind-the-Scenes Photo Scrapbook, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1999.

NBA Hot Shots, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1999.

The Grand Ole Opry Country Christmas Album: Celebrating America's Favorite Holiday with the Legends of Country Music, Berkley Boulevard Books (New York, NY), 2000.

(With The Rock) The Rock Says—: The Most Electrifying Man in Sports-Entertainment, Regan Books (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Basil DiVito) Wrestlemania: The Official Insider's History, Regan Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Burton Snowboards' Pro Riders: No Limits, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2001.

Xtreme Sports: Fast Track, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2002.

All about Apolo, Aladdin Paperbacks (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Amye Leong) Get a Grip! A Take-charge Approach to Living with Arthritis, J.P. Tarcher/Putnam (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Mike Kersjes) A Smile as Big as the Moon: A Teacher, His Class, and Their Unforgettable Journey, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Chuck Zito) Street Justice, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Steve Parish) Home before Daylight: My Life on the Road with the Grateful Dead, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Xtreme Sports: Summer, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Sean Astin) There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2004.

National Football League Super Bowl: Inside the World's Greatest Game, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2004.

(With Peter Salgo) The Heart of the Matter: The Three Key Breakthroughs to Preventing Heart Attacks, Morrow (New York, NY), 2004.

Rising Stars, NFL, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2005.

Super Bowl: Super Quarterbacks, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2005.

The Last Great Fight: The Extraordinary Tale of Two Men and How One Fight Changed Their Lives Forever, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2007.

(With Nathan Sassaman) Warrior King: The Triumph and Betrayal of an American Commander in Iraq, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2008.

SIDELIGHTS:

Since 1994 Joe Layden has written or coauthored numerous books, many of them sports biographies or surveys for young adult readers. Layden started on the darker side of sports writing, with a biography of Tonya Harding in 1994. The next year he wrote Domestic Violence, which was geared toward educating middle-school students, but also had a sports connection, using the O.J. Simpson trial as a thematic hook. Eunice Weech of the School Library Journal found Domestic Violence "readable [and] detailed."

The Great American Baseball Strike, also published in 1995, explains to young readers the causes of the 1994 strike that cancelled the World Series. Todd Morning of the School Library Journal appreciated that "Layden presents information in a well-organized and effective manner" while "giving a clear summary of the sometimes byzantine historical events that brought about the strike." A Kirkus Reviews contributor found Layden's discussion, "simply presented, without taking sides."

In 1997 two of Layden's broader-scoped projects drew critical attention. NBA Game Day is a photo book in which twenty-six photographers help document a typical day in an NBA player's life. Layden and James Preller cowrote the accompanying text, which Nancy Zachary of Voice of Youth Advocates found "worthwhile" in the service of an "interesting focus and artful production." In the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Elizabeth Bush considered NBA Game Day "long on photo and short on essay," declaring the text "brief and breezy." Women in Sports looks at female athletes from a variety of sports over the past century. Two hundred fifty athletes are profiled in 600-word essays, which S.H.M. Reekie of Choice felt were "high on ‘feel good’ factor, although Layden does mention some individual controversies."

Layden wrote two promotional books centered on the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment): a coauthored autobiography of WWF superstar the Rock, and a look at the wrestling leagues' annual Wrestlemania event. A critic from Publishers Weekly found Wrestlemania: The Official Insider's History to be "written engagingly and smoothly."

Since 2002, Layden has moved away from the sports genre and has covered topics such as living with arthritis, inspirational teachers and their classes, and the Grateful Dead. Published in 2002, A Smile as Big as the Moon: A Teacher, His Class, and Their Unforgettable Journey, which Layden coauthored with special-education teacher Mike Kersjes, tells Kersjes' account of how he overcame many great obstacles to bring his small-town high school class to NASA's space camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Many critics were impressed with the book, such as the Booklist contributor who called A Smile as Big as the Moon "a remarkable story" told "in conversational prose that makes for fast reading." The critic also noted that the book was "genuinely inspirational." "A feel-good story with a predictable outcome—but Kersjes tells some hard truths along the way," observed a Kirkus Reviews critic. A Publishers Weekly critic called the book a "refreshing, heart-warming account" that "proves that faith and vision can yield great things."

In 2002, Lyden coauthored yet another book. This time he assisted Chuck Zito in writing his autobiography, Street Justice. Zito, who was born in 1953 and raised in and around New York City, learned to fight aggressively at a young age and eventually developed into an intimidating young man. As a young adult, he fell in love with motorcycles and started the New Rochelle Motorcycle Club, and by 1983 he was vice president of the New York City Hells Angels. His affiliation with the biker gang and his fighting skills got him work as a bouncer at Cafe Central, a celebrity hot spot in the 1980s. In 1985, the FBI raided the Hells Angels for allegedly manufacturing and selling methamphetamine. Zito, who was in Japan at the time of the bust, served time in a Tokyo jail and then spent six years in federal prisons even though he was clearly innocent of the crime. The book "paints a brilliant portrait of club life: its fun, violence, loyalties, and ethics form the backbone of this autobiography," claimed a Kirkus Reviews critic.

In 2004, Layden assisted actor Sean Astin to dish about his experiences in Hollywood in the book There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale. The thirty-three-year-old son of Oscar winner Patty Duke appeared in well-known films such as Rudy and Lord of the Rings. "The book succeeds as a brutally frank, hard-hitting portrait of the film business," noted a Publishers Weekly critic.

Layden turns back to sports as subject matter in 2007's The Last Great Fight: The Extraordinary Tale of Two Men and How One Fight Changed Their Lives Forever. The book tells the story of how one historic fight between James "Buster" Douglas and "Iron" Mike Tyson substantially altered the course of their lives. The fight happened in February 1990 in Tokyo, and underdog Douglas surprisingly beat Tyson for the heavyweight championship of the world in a fight that is frequently referred to as the biggest upset in the history of boxing. "Joe Layden is no Norman Mailer, divining an inner elegance from brutality. Instead, he is meticulous, amassing facts and opinions from those connected with the fight and the two men's lives, stitching a mildly poignant tale," claimed Simon Garfield in a review of the book for the Observer. "Joe Layden has plunged himself into a world whose golden rule is ‘screw the talent.’ He has unearthed a panoply of fascinating characters, the good, the bad and the truly appalling," mused the Independent critic Chris Maume. A critic for Kirkus Reviews was not impressed by Layden's account of the two boxers, and complained that "he rarely provides interesting behind-the-scenes material about the sport." However, Booklist's Wes Lukowsky felt that Layden "has researched and written the most compelling and moving book on the sweet science we've seen in years."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Biography, January 1, 2008, review of The Last Great Fight: The Extraordinary Tale of Two Men and How One Fight Changed Their Lives Forever, p. 177.

Booklist, December 15, 2001, Beth Warrell, review of A Smile as Big as the Moon: A Teacher, His Class, and Their Unforgettable Journey, p. 687; September 1, 2007, Wes Lukowsky, review of The Last Great Fight, p. 45.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, February, 1998, Elizabeth Bush, review of NBA Game Day, p. 212.

Choice, May, 1998, S.H.M. Reekie, review of Women in Sports: The Complete Book on the World's Greatest Female Athletes, p. 1229.

Detroit Free Press, February 15, 2002, review of A Smile as Big as the Moon.

Horn Book Guide, January-June, 1995, review of Domestic Violence, p. 325; July-December, 1995, review of The Great American Baseball Strike, p. 132; July-December, 1997, review of NBA Game Day, p. 155.

Independent (London, England), February 20, 2008, Chris Maume, review of The Last Great Fight.

Joe Weider's Muscle & Fitness, April 1, 2008, "Swan Song," p. 48.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1995, review of The Great American Baseball Strike, p. 1432; November 15, 2001, review of A Smile as Big as the Moon, p. 1596; August 1, 2002, review of Street Justice, p. 1116; August 15, 2007, review of The Last Great Fight.

Kliatt Young Adult Paperback Book Guide, January, 1999, Barbara Jo McKee, review of Kobe: The Story of the NBA's Rising Young Star Kobe Bryant, p. 37.

Library Journal, September 1, 2004, Martha Cornog, review of There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale, p. 151.

Observer (London, England), March 9, 2008, Simon Garfield, review of The Last Great Fight.

Publishers Weekly, April 4, 1994, review of Thin Ice: The Complete, Uncensored Story of Tonya Harding, America's Bad Girl of Ice Skating, p. 32; September 8, 1997, review of All the Rage: The Life of an NFL Renegade, pp. 71-72; February 26, 2001, review of Wrestlemania: The Official Insider's History, p. 70; December 3, 2001, review of A Smile as Big as the Moon, p. 48; September 27, 2004, review of There and Back Again, p. 48.

School Library Journal, May, 1995, Amy Adler, review of Domestic Violence, p. 113; January, 1996, review of The Great American Baseball Strike, p. 120.

USA Today, July 1, 2004, Gerald F. Kreyche, review of The Heart of the Matter: The Three Key Breakthroughs to Preventing Heart Attacks, p. 80.

Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 1998, Joyce Sparrow, review of Women in Sports, p. 222, and Nancy Zachary, review of NBA Game Day, pp. 222-223.