Bozeman Bulger
Bozeman Bulger (1877-1932) was an influential American sportswriter and attorney born in Dadeville, Alabama, to a prominent Southern family. He moved to Birmingham in the 1880s and later attended the University of Alabama. Bulger began his career in journalism in 1899 as a sportswriter for the Birmingham Age-Herald and eventually relocated to New York City, where he wrote for the Evening World and later the Saturday Evening Post. He was noted for his engaging writing style and his role in elevating sports journalism into a recognized literary genre during the early 20th century.
In addition to his journalism, Bulger served in the Spanish-American War and later as a chief press liaison during World War I, earning a citation for bravery. His notable works include articles on iconic sports figures and humorous characters he created, which showcased his wit and narrative talent. Although his writings remain largely unpublished in book form, they are considered some of the finest sports journalism of the era. Bulger's contributions to sports writing and literature were significant, and he is remembered as a key figure among his contemporaries, even if he is less known today. He passed away from a heart attack in Lynbrook, New York, leaving behind a legacy as a pioneer in American sports literature.
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Bozeman Bulger
Writer
- Born: November 22, 1877
- Birthplace: Dadeville, Alabama
- Died: May 23, 1932
- Place of death: Lynbrook, New York
Biography
Bozeman Bulger was born on November 22, 1877, in Dadeville, Alabama, to a distinguished Southern family. In the 1880’s, his family moved to Birmingham, Alabama, and Bulger later attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He became an attorney, worked as a legislative clerk in Montgomery, Alabama, for several years, and became a sportswriter for the Birmingham Age-Herald in 1899.
In the early years of the twentieth century, Bulger moved to New York City with his wife, Louise, and their young daughter, Gene, and got a job as a sportswriter on the Evening World, where he worked until that paper was sold in 1931. That year, he took over the “Out-of-Doors” column for the Saturday Evening Post, writing on everything from polo to motoring. Bulger had already served in the Spanish-American War in Cuba in 1898, but at the age of forty he enlisted again when World War I broke out and was assigned to General John Pershing’s staff, where he was chief press liaison for American war correspondents. Bulger was cited for bravery under fire in the Argonne Forest offensive.
During the first four decades of the twentieth century, sports journalism would emerge as a distinctive literary genre in America, and Bulger would become one of its finest practitioners, rubbing elbows with Damon Runyon, Ring Lardner, Grantland Rice, and other writers who helped lift sports reportage into national prominence. His articles for the Evening World and the Saturday Evening Post have not been collected and published in book form, but they remain some of the finest sportswriting of the first half of the twentieth century. His work includes pieces like “Twenty-Five Years in Sports,” which appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1928; “Genius of the Game,” a three-part Saturday Evening Post series published in 1932 on the legendary baseball player and manager John J. McGraw; and “Thoroughbreds and Thrills,” a two-part Saturday Evening Post piece, also appearing in 1932.
Like Runyon and other colleagues, Bulger created several humorous characters in his pieces, such as baseball player Swat Milligan and a scout known as Spotty Malloy. Bulger’s only book was McGraw’s autobiography, Thirty Years in Baseball, which he helped McGraw write. He also wrote plays and sketches during his years in New York, including The $11,000 Beauty, Swat Milligan, and Curves, but these were never published.
Bulger died of a heart attack in Lynbrook, New York, on May 23, 1932. He is less well known today than some of his contemporaries, but by the end of his life he was considered the dean of American sportswriters, a writer with a witty, literate style who helped create a new genre of American literature.