Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 7/15/2007

7/15/1945:
Byron Nelson rallies from three holes behind to win his ninth straight tournament, the PGA Championship, over former big-league baseball player Sammy Byrd at Dayton, Ohio. Nelson wins four straight holes (the 29th through 32nd) to assume command from Byrd, known as "Babe Ruth's Legs" during his days with the New York Yankees. He'll extend his winning streak to 11 before being beaten next month at Memphis.

Birthdays:
Donn Clendenon b. 1935
Alex Karras b. 1935
John Stallworth b. 1952
Barry Melrose b. 1956
Sammy Winder b. 1959

MEMOIRS

“Helen Keller is fellow to Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, Homer, Shakespeare, and the rest of the immortals....She will be as famous a thousand years from now as she is today.”—Mark Twain

Helen Keller’s memoir is as inspirational as you’d expect. She chronicles her rise—from unreachable deaf, mute, and blind girl to Radcliffe College student—in straightforward prose and with aching detail. A remarkable and still moving life story by the person Winston Churchill called “the greatest woman of our age.”

THE STORY OF MY LIFE, by Helen Keller (1903; Modern Library, 2004)