John Christgau

John Christgau is a published author who taught English and coached basketball at Crestmoor High School in San Bruno, California during the 1960s and 1970s. He attended San Francisco State University. He told his students that his mentor was writer Walter Van Tilburg Clark (1909-1971), best known for "The Oxbow Incident" and "The Portable Phonograph". Christgau has utilized his experiences as Crestmoor's first varsity basketball coach (beginning with the 1963-64 academic year) in some of his writing. Students remember Christgau as a jovial intellectual who instilled a love for the history and variety of American literature. [Eyewitness account by Robert E. Nylund] Christgau was born in Minnesota; he and his wife presently live in Belmont, California. [johnchristgau.com]

Published Works

Christgau's novel "Spoon", published by Viking Press, was called a "Candide of the Wild West" and won The Society of Midland Authors prize for "Best Fiction" in 1978. "Enemies", a dramatic non-fiction account of the World War II alien enemy internment program, was published in 1985 by the Iowa State University Press. His prize-winning historical monograph "Collins Versus the World" is anthologized in Garland Publishing's series on "Asian Americans and the Law." "Sierra Sue II: The Story of a P-51 Mustang", was released in 1995. "Mower County Poems", underwritten in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, appeared in 1998. "The Origins of the Jump Shot: Eight Men Who Shook the World of Basketball", was a Bison Original from the University of Nebraska Press in the spring of 1999. "Tricksters in the Madhouse: Globetrotters vs. the Lakers" was released by the University of Nebraska Press in the fall of 2004.

Christgau's short stories, articles, and humor have appeared in national and international periodicals. His books have been the focus of extensive press coverage, including copy in the "New York Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Minneapolis Star, Atlantic Monthly, Oakland Tribune, Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, Houston Post", and the "New York Review of Books". His recent broadcast credits include a feature on National Public Radio and regional segments in New York, Tennessee, Washington/Baltimore, New Jersey, Nebraska, Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Indiana, and California. His book "Enemies" was featured on German Public Radio in 2001 and appeared serially as an e-book on the website GermanCorner.com. He is one of several WWII alien internment scholars who collaborated to produce the photo exhibit "The Alien Enemy Files: Hidden Stories of WWII."

Christgau is a frequent guest lecturer to professional and educational groups. He is a member of The Society of Midland Authors. [johnchristgau.com]

Writing Style

An example of Christgau's writing style is given in "NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture" (Volume 11, Number 1, Fall 2002, pp. 107-112, published by the University of Nebraska Press):

In the summer of 1925, my father played baseball in the little prairie town of Balaton, Minnesota. He had just finished his senior year as captain of the Golden Gophers, who won the Big Ten championship that year. Hoping to make it to the Major Leagues, he had gone out to Marshall, Minnesota, to eradicate the infamous barberry plant, which is the winter host for the even more infamous wheat rust. While he went looking for barberry, he also went looking for a host baseball team that could harbor his catching talents until he made it to the Big Leagues. The Balaton Braves Baseball Club was eager to sign him on for $20 a game, and that summer he rooted out weeds and played baseball.

In the summer of 1992, my brother and I drove from Minneapolis to Balaton to poke around the prairie town where our father had played baseball over a half-century earlier. There isn't much today in Balaton. The main street is 3rd Street, featuring the red brick facade of what was the old M & G Chevrolet Company, next to the Gem Theater (closed now, but photographs show the marquee with "Your Best Entertainment" inscribed on it, the "Y" of the "Your" tilted and falling onto the "o"), and next to that Johnson's Cafe, with a sign imploring us to "Drink Coca-Cola." In front of the café sits "The Bench," roost most of the day for Balaton's retired farmers and senior citizens—half a dozen old men who can sit for hours. The only other memorable structure in Balaton is the grain elevator, with a small doghouse cupola at the top. From a distance, the elevator looks like a giant football player with box shoulders and a button head watching over the town. [University of Nebraska Press website]

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