Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 13:45:20 -0400 
From: Louis Blair <lb2e+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Book about Fischer wanted.

Johannes Fuernkranz writes:
>I've recently read "Profile of a Prodigy" by Frank Brady ...
>I was rather disappointed though, because ... this book is only
>an annotation of Bobby's tournament successes and excesses.
>Brady mentions another book though: It was ... "Master Prim".
>This is supposed to be a book about a fictional person with a
>character closely related to Bobby Fischer. It even cites some
>of Bobby's eccentric interviews.  It was published somewhen
>in the late 60's and is (not surprisingly) out of print.  Has anyone
>seen, heard of or read this book? Opinions?

Master Prim by James Whitfield Ellison is a work of fiction,
published in 1968, about a chess player that was obviously
inspired by Bobby Fischer.  SOME true facts about Fischer
are used by the author to describe his fictional character, but
they are mixed with a good deal of material that is definitely
NOT true of Fischer.  There is no way for the reader to know
what statements would apply to the real person.  The novel
may perhaps have some interest, but I do not think it is a
good way to learn about Fischer.  There is nothing in there
that a person could not find out by reading various nonfiction
works.  In any event the novel covers only a brief period in
the life of the fictional character, Julian Prim.  He meets a
reporter, has an affair with the reporter's daughter, prepares
for the U. S. championship, plays in it, and that is about it.

>Are there any other books about the Life (not only the Chess
>Life) of Bobby Fischer?

Many of the Fischer quotes that you see come from a 1961
interview by Ralph Ginzburg that eventually appeared
in Harper's Magazine around the beginning of 1962 if I
remember correctly.  An abridged version of some of the
article can be found in The Personality of Chess by I. A.
Horowitz and P. L. Rothenberg.  (This book has also been
published under the title, The Complete Book of Chess.)
Fischer has reportedly denied making some of the statements
that are attributed to him and claimed that some of the
other quotes are distorted and/or taken out of context.
If nothing else, I get the clear impression that Fischer
was in a hostile mood at the time.  Also, he was only 18
and his views in many areas may well have changed
since then.  I think it would be worthwhile to try and
locate some of Fischer's own writings.  To get to know
what Fischer was like, you should of course take a look
at his book, My Sixty Memorable Games, although that
is mostly chess rather than life.  If you can manage to
locate a copy, you may want to read Fischer's 1959 book,
Bobby Fischer's Games of Chess.  There is a famous and
very influential article that he wrote for Sports Illustrated
in the early sixties.  Many scoffed, but it led eventually
to a reform of the method used to choose challengers
for the world chess championship.  The famous chess
trainer, John W. Collins, wrote a book, My Seven Chess
Prodigies, that devotes a chapter to his experiences with
Fischer.  In general, it is hard to get personal information
about Fischer, because he, himself, has tried hard to keep
his personal life private.  I've heard that recently Geraldo
hoped to devote an episode of his show to Fischer and
eventually gave up because of the lack of available
information.  For a summary of the rumors about how
Fischer is living these days, you may want to look at
the book, Searching for Bobby Fischer by Fred Waitzkin.

Newsgroups: rec.games.chess