A deluxe illustrated edition of one of the most beloved books of our time, with nearly 150 historic photographs personally selected by the author

The spellbinding true story of how three men and a great racehorse captivated a nation, Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit: An American Legend became an immediate number one bestseller and cultural phenomenon upon its publication in 2001. Named one of the best books of the year by more than twenty publications--including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, People, USA Today, and The Economist--Seabiscuit was also honored as the BookSense Nonfiction Book of the Year and the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, and was a finalist for several other major prizes, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

For this lavishly illustrated special edition, author Laura Hillenbrand has written a new Introduction and selected nearly 150 rare photographs from historic archives and private collections. Seabiscuit tells the story of three remarkable men: Charles Howard, a bicycle repairman who made a fortune by introducing the automobile to the American West; Red Pollard, a failed prizefighter and failing jockey who was abandoned as a boy at a makeshift racetrack; and Tom Smith, an enigmatic mustang breaker who came from the vanishing frontier, bearing generations of lost wisdom about the secrets of horses.

In the sultry summer of 1936, the lives of these men converged around a bad-legged, floundering racehorse named Seabiscuit. Forming an improbable partnership, they transformed the horse into one of the most extraordinary competitors in sports history. In four tumultuous years, the rags-to-riches horse overcame a phenomenal run of misfortune to emerge as an American cultural icon, drawing an immense following, prompting an avalanche of merchandising, and establishing himself as the single biggest newsmaker of 1938--receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or any other public figure.

Seabiscuit is an inspiring tale of unlikely heroes, a classic story of three embattled individuals and a remarkable racehorse overcoming the odds in the Great Depression.

From the Hardcover edition.

THE DAY OF THE HORSE IS PASTCharles Howard had the feel of a gigantic onrushing machine: You had to either climb on or leap out of the way. He would sweep into a room, working a cigarette in his fingers, and people would trail him like pilot fish. They couldn't help themselves. Fifty-eight years old in 1935, Howard was a tall, glowing man in a big suit and a very big Buick. But it wasn't his physical bearing that did it. He lived on a California ranch so huge that a man could take a wrong turn on it and be lost forever, but it wasn't his circumstances either. Nor was it that he spoke loud or long; the surprise of the man was his understatement, the quiet and kindly intimacy of his acquaintance. What drew people to him was something intangible, an air about him. There was a certain inevitability to Charles Howard, an urgency radiating from him that made people believe that the world was always going to bend to his wishes.

On an afternoon in 1903, long before the big cars and the ranch and all
the money, Howard began his adulthood with only that air of destiny and
21 cents in his pocket. He sat in the swaying belly of a transcontinental
train, snaking west from New York. He was twenty-six, handsome, gentle-manly, with a bounding imagination. Back then he had a lot more hair than
anyone who knew him later would have guessed. Years in the saddles of
military-school horses had taught him to carry his six-foot-one-inch frame
straight up.

He was eastern born and bred, but he had a westerner's restlessness.
He had tried to satisfy it by enlisting in the cavalry for the Spanish-American War, and though he became a skilled horseman, thanks to bad
timing and dysentery he never got out of Camp Wheeler in Alabama. After
his discharge, he got a job in New York as a bicycle mechanic, took up
competitive bicycle racing, got married, and had two sons. It seems to have been a good life, but the East stifled Howard. His mind never seemed to
settle down. His ambitions had fixed upon the vast new America on the
other side of the Rockies. That day in 1903 he couldn't resist the impulse
anymore. He left everything he'd ever known behind, promised his wife
Fannie May he'd send for her soon, and got on the train.

He got off in San Francisco. His two dimes and a penny couldn't carry
him far, but somehow he begged and borrowed enough money to open a
little bicycle-repair shop on Van Ness Avenue downtown. He tinkered
with the bikes and waited for something interesting to come his way.

It came in the form of a string of distressed-looking men who began appearing at his door. Eccentric souls with too much money in their pockets
and far too much time on their hands, they had blown thick wads of cash
on preposterous machines called automobiles. Some of them were feeling
terribly sorry about it.

The horseless carriage was just arriving in San Francisco, and its debut
was turning into one of those colorfully unmitigated disasters that bring
misery to everyone but historians. Consumers were staying away from the
"devilish contraptions" in droves. The men who had invested in them
were the subjects of cautionary tales, derision, and a fair measure of public loathing. In San Francisco in 1903, the horse and buggy was not going the
way of the horse and buggy.

For good reason. The automobile, so sleekly efficient on paper, was in
practice a civic menace, belching out exhaust, kicking up storms of dust,
becoming hopelessly mired in the most innocuous-looking puddles, tying
up horse traffic, and raising an earsplitting cacophony that sent buggy
horses fleeing. Incensed local lawmakers...

"A captivating story . . . with the detail of good history, the blistering pace of Biscuit himself and the charm of grand legend."

"Remarkable . . . memorable . . . just as compelling today as it was in 1938."

"Dazzling . . . [Seabiscuit] does for the world of horse racing what Into Thin Air did for mountain climbing. . . . In daredevil prose that sprints along at a breakneck pace, Hillenbrand tells the incredible tale of Seabiscuit. . . . Like a brilliant jockey, Hillenbrand suspensefully manages her champion of a story. In the final stretch, it hurtles towards its climax."

"It's a terrific story, but it's more than just a horse's tale, because the humans who owned, trained and rode Seabiscuit are equally fascinating. . . . Even if your interest in horses goes no further than hansom cabs, you'll find this book engrossing."

"Terrific . . . Illuminating a forgotten piece of American history, Seabiscuit brings alive the drama, the beauty, the louche charm and the brutality of horse racing."

"Good sports books are few and far between, good books on racing even more so. So it is hugely refreshing when one as fine as this one comes along. The research is meticulous, the writing elegant and concise, so that every page transports you back to the period. . . . This is a remarkable tale well told by a writer who deftly blends history and sport. Seabiscuit should capture a new generation of readers beyond the world of horse racing."

Laura Hillenbrand has been writing about Thoroughbred racing since 1988 and has been a contributing writer/editor to EQUUS magazine since 1989. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, American Heritage, The Washington Post, and many other publications. She is a two-time winner of the Eclipse Award, the highest journalistic honor in Thoroughbred racing. She served as a consultant on the Universal Pictures movie based on this book as well as a PBS documentary on Seabiscuit's life. Born in Fairfax, Virginia, Hillenbrand attended Kenyon College and currently lives in Washington, D.C. She can be reached via the Internet at www.seabiscuitonline.com.

From the Hardcover...