James Earle Breslin (October 17, 1928 – March 19, 2017) was an American journalist and author. He wrote a column for the New York Daily News Sunday edition. He also wrote numerous novels, and columns of his appeared regularly in various newspapers in his hometown of New York City. He served as a regular columnist for the Long Island newspaper Newsday until his retirement on November 2, 2004, though he still published occasional pieces for the paper. He was known for his newspaper columns which offered a sympathetic viewpoint of the working-class people of New York City, and was awarded the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary "for columns which consistently champion ordinary citizens".
Easton Press Jimmy Breslin books
I Don't Want to Go to Jail - signed first edition - 2001
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Jimmy Breslin biography
Born in Jamaica, New York, Breslin was a columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, the Daily News, Newsday, and other venues. When the Sunday supplement of the Tribune was reworked into New York magazine by editor Clay Felker in 1962, Breslin appeared in the new edition, which became "the hottest Sunday read in town." He has been married twice. His first marriage, to Rosemary Dattolico, ended with her death in 1981. They had six children together: sons Kevin, James, Patrick and Christopher, and daughters Rosemary and Kelly. His daughter Rosemary died June 14, 2004 from a rare blood disease and his daughter Kelly, 44, died on April 21. 2009, four days after a cardiac arrhythmia in a New York City restaurant.
Among his notable columns, perhaps the best known was published the day after John F. Kennedy's funeral, focusing on the man who had dug the president's grave. The column is indicative of Breslin's style, which often highlights how major events or the actions of those considered "newsworthy" affect the "common man."
He ran an unsuccessful campaign as an independent for the position of president of the New York City Council in 1969. He allied himself with Norman Mailer, who was running for the position of mayor at the same time, on a platform which proposed the secession of New York City from the rest of New York state. Both were soundly defeated.
Breslin's public profile in the '60s as a regular guy led to a brief stint as a TV pitchman for Piels Beer, most memorably in a bar room commercial where he intoned in his deep voice "Piels- it's a good drinkin' beer!".
His career as an investigative journalist led him to cultivate ties with various Mafia and criminal elements in the city, not always with positive results. In 1970, he was viciously attacked and beaten at The Suite, a restaurant then owned by Lucchese crime family associate Henry Hill. The attack was carried out by mobster Jimmy Burke, who objected to an article Breslin had written involving another member of the Lucchese family, Paul Vario. Though Breslin suffered an epistaxis(nosebleed) and a major concussion, he survived the ordeal without any permanent injury. In 1977, at the height of the Son of Sam scare in New York City, the killer, who was later identified as David Berkowitz, addressed letters to Breslin. Excerpts from these were published and were later used in the Spike Lee film Summer of Sam, a film in which Breslin, portraying himself, bookends. In 2008, The Library of America selected one of Breslin's many Son of Sam articles for the New York Daily News for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American True Crime writing.
Jimmy Breslin books in order
Sunny Jim: The life of America's most beloved horseman, James Fitzsimmons - 1962
Can't Anybody Here Play This Game? - 1963
World of Jimmy Breslin - 1969
Running Against the Machine: A Grass Roots Race for the New York Mayoralty 1969
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight - 1970
World without End, Amen - 1973
How the Good Guys Finally Won - 1976
Breslin to .44 Calibur Killer: Give up! It's the only way out - 1977
.44 - 1978
Forsaking All Others - 1983
Table Money - 1986
He Got Hungry and Forgot His Manners - 1988
The World According to Jimmy Breslin - 1988
Damon Runyon: A Life - 1991
I Want to Thank My Brain for Remembering Me : A Memoir - 1997
American Lives: The Stories of the Men and Women Lost on September 11 - 2002
I Don't Want to Go to Jail: A Novel - 2002
The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutierrez - 2002
The Church That Forgot Christ - 2004
America's Mayor: The Hidden History of Rudy Giuliani's New York - 2005
America's Mayor: America's President? The Strange Career of Rudy Giuliani - 2007
The Good Rat: A True Story - 2008
Branch Rickey - 2011
Source and additional information: Jimmy Breslin