Pitt Book Center to Host Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author David Maraniss July 11

PITTSBURGH--David Maraniss, winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for his Washington Post articles on Bill Clinton during the 1992 presidential campaign, will participate in a "Meet and Speak" on his new book, Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero (Simon & Shuster, 2006), at noon July 11 in the University of Pittsburgh Book Center, 4000 Fifth Ave., Oakland.

The free public event will occur in the afternoon before the All Star Game, which will be played in Pittsburgh's PNC Park.

Maraniss presents the first full-scale biography of Clemente, who in 1954 was the number one draft pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He joined the Pirates in 1955 and played his entire 18-year major league baseball career for the team, until his death in 1972. Clemente was killed in a plane crash while attempting to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Maraniss' book provides new details of the crash.

The first Latino elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Clemente is regarded as one of the most gifted and electrifying baseball players of all time. He led the way for the first major wave of Latino players coming into baseball.

A writer on the national staff of The Washington Post, Maraniss also is author of First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton (Simon & Shuster, 1995), Tell Newt to Shut Up: Prize-Winning Washington Post Journalists Reveal How Reality Gagged the Gingrich Revolution (Simon & Shuster, 1996), The Clinton Enigma: A Four and A Half Minute Speech Reveals This President's Entire Life (Simon & Shuster, 1998), When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi (Simon & Shuster, 1999), and They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967 (Simon & Shuster, 2003).

Pitt's Book Center and Simon & Shuster are sponsoring the event. For more information, call 412-648-1453.

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6/28/06/tmw