A Story of Golf, Going Home, and Sharing Life's Lessons.
In Stores Now:
Beautiful Madness (2006)
During an amazing year of living botanically, Dodson went behind the scenes of the world's two most important garden shows; spent time with the Botticelli of Bulbs; attended a rare-plant auction with high rollers; sneaked into a Hosta convention; communed with the kindred spirits of Thomas Jefferson and John Bartram; met a man smuggling exotic daylilies; learned the inside poop on ten or twelve of the Western world's most influential gardens; swiped cuttings from a Founding Father's shrubbery; hung out with ten or twelve of the most accomplished gardening fanatics on earth; built three new gardens of his own; and wound up hanging perilously from a limb on the side of a cliff in Southern Africa, the birthplace of an estimated one-third of the world's flowers.
Ben Hogan: An American Life (2004)
Authorized, intimate, and definitive, Ben Hogan: An American Life is the biography of one of golf’s greatest most enigmatic legends, narrated with the unique eloquence that has made author James Dodson a critically acclaimed national bestseller. For the first time, Dodson explains the inner workings of Hogan’s life, and the guarded man few people knew.
The Road to Somewhere (2003)
There are two kinds of travel, someone once said – first class and with children. As Jim Dodson discovered during the summer of 2001 when he and his ten-year-old son Jack set off to see the “old” world, traveling with a kid can almost make a grown man feel – and behave – like a child again. The stated aim of their larkish adventure was to try to circle the globe and spy the wonders the world has to offer, but the best-laid plans soon went awry. Father and son encountered many unforeseen obstacles to their journey – some hilarious and others heartbreaking – but they discovered something far more valuable in each other’s company: a world where, at the end of the day, unexpected laughter and pain can make us all friendly small-town neighbors.
The Dewsweepers (2002)
The story of an eclectic, eccentric group of men who call themselves the Dewsweepers – so named because they are the first players off the tee every weekend morning at the old club in upstate New York where they all play. Adopted by the Dewsweepers, Dodson sets out through the course of the seasons of one all-too-brief golf year to try to get back in touch with the simpler joys and uncomplicated leisures that once upon a time had made him fall madly in love with the ancient game. As friendship deepens, and each man’s tale unfolds movingly and sometimes hilariously, James Dodson’s own life is ultimately tested – examined – and changed for the better.
A Golfer's Life (with Arnold Palmer, 1999)
Writing with the humor and candor that are as much his trademark as his unique golf swing, Palmer narrates the deeply moving story of his life both on and off the links. He recounts his friendships (and rivalries) with greats of the game, including Jack Nicklaus, his legendary charges to triumph and his titanic disasters, and his valiant battle against cancer. From small-town boy to golfing legend, Arnold Palmer has lived one of the great sporting live of the twentieth century. Now, with the help of acclaimed golf writer James Dodson, he has created one of the great sports autobiographies of our time.
Faithful Travelers (1998)
It has been said that life is what happens while you’re waiting to go fishing. Only weeks after his eleven-year marriage abruptly ended in an amicable divorce, James Dodson decided to go on a fly-fishing pilgrimage west. His goal: to heal his wounded spirit and explain as best he could the vagaries of life and love to his beautiful, precocious seven-year-old daughter, Maggie. So with his beat-up truck, Old Blue, and his aging retriever, Amos, Dodson and Maggie set out without plans or reservations, following where the sprit – and the lure of America’s mighty rivers – leads them, on their way to one of America’s grandest treasures: Yellowstone National Park. On the way Dodson discovers a great deal about fishing, about America, and about the special relationship that exists only between a father and daughter.
Final Rounds (1996)
With his father approaching eighty, Dodson planned a dream golf trip through England and France, where the elder Dodson had first discovered his love for the game some fifty years earlier as an airman during World War II. But when he learned his father was suffering from an advance form of cancer, the trip took on an added urgency, for Braxton Dodson had been given only a month or two to live. Like golf itself, Final Rounds is about much more than just a game: it is about a journey of discovery between a father and a son, about long-held secrets finally shared, and about the valuable lessons a middle-aged man could still learn from his father on the importance of life, love, and family