Bud Shrake

Edwin A. (Bud) Shrake, Jr. (born September 6, 1931) is an American journalist, sportswriter, novelist, biographer and screenwriter. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, he attended Paschal High School where, along with Dan Jenkins (another noted sportswriter), he wrote for the school newspaper the Paschal Pantherette. In 1951, Shrake joined the Fort Worth Press Sports Department while he earned a degree in English and Philosophy at Texas Christian University.

In 1958, Shrake moved to the Dallas Times Herald as a sportswriter followed by a move in 1961 to the Dallas Morning News in order to write a daily sports column. In 1964, Shrake moved to New York, following Dan Jenkins, to join the staff of Sports Illustrated. Shrake returned to Texas in 1968 and continued his association with Sports Illustrated until 1979 while also writing novels and screenplays.

Shrake began to write celebrity as-told-to biographies in the 1980s, beginning with his friend, musician Willie Nelson which was followed by a biography of Barry Switzer, and most notably Harvey Penick's Little Red Book, which went on to become the bestselling sports book in American publishing history.

Bibliography

Fiction

*Blood Reckoning (1962)
*But Not For Love (1964)
*Blessed McGill (1968)
*Strange Peaches (1972)
*Peter Arbiter (1973)
*Limo (1976, with Dan Jenkins)
*Night Never Falls (1987)
*The Borderland: A Novel of Texas (2000)
*Billy Boy (2001)
*Custer's Brother's Horse (2007)

Nonfiction

*Willie: An Autobiography (1988)
*Bootlegger's Boy (1990)
*Harvey Penick's Little Red Book (1992)