Joel Zoss
Encyclopedia
Joel R. Zoss is an American
singer, guitarist
, songwriter
and award-winning prose author
.
, with his family. He attended Montessori School and public kindergarten in Madison and later moved with his family to Berkeley Heights, New Jersey
, where he attended Columbia Public School from grades one through seven. He then moved with his family to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he attended Saint Paul Academy, a military day school, for grades eight through ten. He attended the University of Minnesota High School for the first half of eleventh grade, then moved with his family to Providence, Rhode Island
, where he completed eleventh grade at Providence’s Classical High School. He attended Moses Brown School in Providence for his twelfth year of high school and graduated from the College at the University of Chicago with a B.A. in English in 1966. Zoss' family moved often because his father’s professional skills were much in demand.
From the age of about ten, the family returned every summer to Martha's Vineyard
, where Zoss participated in the Folk Revival of the 1950s and 1960s, meeting and playing with many of the seminal influences of the day, and began performing with Alex Taylor
and his younger brother James Taylor
. He has continued to spend time on Martha's Vineyard since childhood.
In the fall of 1966 Zoss began graduate studies in physical anthropology at Columbia University
in New York
. In New York he also began working with psychologist Richard Alpert (later aka Ram Dass
). Their collaborations led him to various studies outside academia and marked the end of his formal education. In 1967 he left the United States. Based in Spain
, for the next several years he lived in European capitals and points around the Mediterranean while focusing on prose fiction. Zoss sold his first short story to New Worlds Magazine in 1968 in London, and later that year sold his first novel, Chronicle, to Jonathan Cape and Harper & Row.
as one of the 50 greatest baseball books of all times. Zoss has won several awards for his prose and is an International PEN
short story award winner and a National Endowment for the Arts
Fellow of Creative Writing (awarded on the basis of his novel Chronicle, published by Simon & Schuster in 1980).
A versatile musician known for mixing metaphysical themes with strong melodies, Zoss gained a worldwide cult following after Bonnie Raitt
began recording his songs in the early 1970s. Because of his broad range of styles, his music does not easily fit into any one genre; Zoss has recorded ballad
s, reggae
, blues
and other music for several major record label
s. His recordings are currently available in the United States on Catalan Records, Rounder
, Critique, DM, and through the Smithsonian Institution
; and as imports from BMG Arista Japan. His songs have been covered by many artists on many labels and have sold millions of copies, earning him two gold records
, and have been acquired and licensed by institutions as diverse as MUZAK and the Smithsonian Institution
.
, was in the club trying to get a booking for Raitt. While Waterman and the club owner were discussing the booking, he heard Zoss sing "Too Long at the Fair." After the show Waterman introduced himself and asked for a tape of the song to play for Raitt, who was about to record her second album for Warner Bros.
Two songs, "Too Long at the Fair" and "I Gave My Love a Candle," were subsequently recorded by singer Raitt. Both songs also appear on Zoss’ critically acclaimed eponymous first album, which was recorded in 1974 for Arista Records. It is still available as an import from Japan.
, James Taylor, David Bromberg
, John Hall and Orleans, John Hartford
, Juan-Carlos Formell, Paul Butterfield
, Bonnie Raitt, David Sanborn
, Vassar Clements
, Lowell George
and Little Feat
, Taj Mahal
, Norman Blake
, Todd Rundgren
, Kate Taylor
, Howling Wolf, Ferron
, June Millington
and The Master Musicians of Jajouka.
During 2008 and 2009 Zoss appeared frequently with B.B. King in theaters across the United States. In addition, he has toured extensively throughout the U.S., performing both as a solo artist and also with the Joel Zoss Trio at such venues as The Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, Philadelphia Folk Festival
, Max’s Kansas City, The Main Point
, The Beacon Theater, The Bottom Line
, The Living Room, Club Helsinki, The Cutting Room, The Cellar Door
, Passim, Caffe Lena
, The Ashgrove, The Bitter End
, Folk City, Johnny D's, The Paradise, The Bushnell, The Hooker-Dunham Theatre, The Iron Horse Music Hall, The Keswick Theater, and the Northampton Academy of Music.
As a solo performer and with his trio, Zoss, who also plays gimbri and oud, performs original compositions and occasionally adds traditional pieces such as those by Elizabeth Cotten
, Leadbelly
, Big Bill Broonzy
, and Robert Johnson. His trio includes Guy DeVito, formerly of FAT, on bass, and Billy Klock, on drums. Bassist Guy DeVito has recorded and performed with his band FAT (Atlantic Recording Corp.] and [RCA) and with Felix Pappalardi
, John Kay
and Steppenwolf
, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, and Stevie Wonder
. Drummer Billy Klock is a graduate of the Hartford Conservatory of Music who has kept time and recorded with many major players, most recently touring nationally with Greg Piccolo and Heavy Juice, formerly of Roomful of Blues
.
Since 1994 Zoss has been the annual recipient of a Special Music Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ASCAP. His 2008 album, Lila, was produced
by June Millington
, leader of the all-female rock band Fanny
.
). "Sarah’s Song," was also on his earlier Arista album. The other eleven tracks were: "Oh, Jerusalem;" "Pushing the River;" "Mother Wanted You Home;" "Cantina Bodega;" "Till I Met You;" "Pretty Flowers;" "Touchstone;" "In My Dreams;" "The Token;" "Junkers Blues;" and "‘Tis of Thee."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer, guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and award-winning prose author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
Early years
At the age of four Zoss moved to Madison, New JerseyMadison, New Jersey
Madison is a borough in Morris County, New Jersey, in the United States. As of the 2000 United States Census, the population was 16,530. It also is known as "The Rose City".-Geography:Madison is located at ....
, with his family. He attended Montessori School and public kindergarten in Madison and later moved with his family to Berkeley Heights, New Jersey
Berkeley Heights, New Jersey
Berkeley Heights is a township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 13,183....
, where he attended Columbia Public School from grades one through seven. He then moved with his family to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he attended Saint Paul Academy, a military day school, for grades eight through ten. He attended the University of Minnesota High School for the first half of eleventh grade, then moved with his family to Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, where he completed eleventh grade at Providence’s Classical High School. He attended Moses Brown School in Providence for his twelfth year of high school and graduated from the College at the University of Chicago with a B.A. in English in 1966. Zoss' family moved often because his father’s professional skills were much in demand.
From the age of about ten, the family returned every summer to Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
, where Zoss participated in the Folk Revival of the 1950s and 1960s, meeting and playing with many of the seminal influences of the day, and began performing with Alex Taylor
Alex Taylor
Alex Taylor is a former pornographic actress who mainly worked for Vivid Entertainment from 1998 to 2004....
and his younger brother James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
. He has continued to spend time on Martha's Vineyard since childhood.
In the fall of 1966 Zoss began graduate studies in physical anthropology at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In New York he also began working with psychologist Richard Alpert (later aka Ram Dass
Ram Dass
Ram Dass is an American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the seminal 1971 book Be Here Now. He is known for his personal and professional associations with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, for his travels to India and his relationship with the Hindu guru Neem...
). Their collaborations led him to various studies outside academia and marked the end of his formal education. In 1967 he left the United States. Based in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, for the next several years he lived in European capitals and points around the Mediterranean while focusing on prose fiction. Zoss sold his first short story to New Worlds Magazine in 1968 in London, and later that year sold his first novel, Chronicle, to Jonathan Cape and Harper & Row.
Prose and music
Zoss' professional life has always balanced between prose and music, sometimes weighted heavily to one or the other, as during the 1980s into the 1990s, when he authored or co-authored over twenty five non-fiction books. These included, with historian John S. Bowman, Diamonds in the Rough (Macmillan 1989), cited by The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
as one of the 50 greatest baseball books of all times. Zoss has won several awards for his prose and is an International PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
short story award winner and a National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Fellow of Creative Writing (awarded on the basis of his novel Chronicle, published by Simon & Schuster in 1980).
A versatile musician known for mixing metaphysical themes with strong melodies, Zoss gained a worldwide cult following after Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
began recording his songs in the early 1970s. Because of his broad range of styles, his music does not easily fit into any one genre; Zoss has recorded ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s, reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and other music for several major record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
s. His recordings are currently available in the United States on Catalan Records, Rounder
Rounder Records
Rounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students...
, Critique, DM, and through the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
; and as imports from BMG Arista Japan. His songs have been covered by many artists on many labels and have sold millions of copies, earning him two gold records
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
, and have been acquired and licensed by institutions as diverse as MUZAK and the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
.
Debut album
Early in the 1970s Zoss performed at Passim (Club 47) in Cambridge. While he was onstage, Bonnie Raitt's manager, Dick WatermanDick Waterman
Dick Waterman is an American writer, promoter and photographer, who has been influential in the development and recording of the blues since the 1960s.-Life and career:...
, was in the club trying to get a booking for Raitt. While Waterman and the club owner were discussing the booking, he heard Zoss sing "Too Long at the Fair." After the show Waterman introduced himself and asked for a tape of the song to play for Raitt, who was about to record her second album for Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Two songs, "Too Long at the Fair" and "I Gave My Love a Candle," were subsequently recorded by singer Raitt. Both songs also appear on Zoss’ critically acclaimed eponymous first album, which was recorded in 1974 for Arista Records. It is still available as an import from Japan.
Performing and recording
Zoss has performed and recorded with many artists including B.B. King, Etta JamesEtta James
Etta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...
, James Taylor, David Bromberg
David Bromberg
David Bromberg is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Bromberg has an eclectic style, playing bluegrass, blues, folk, jazz, country and western, and rock and roll equally well. He is known for his quirky, humorous lyrics, and the ability to play rhythm and lead guitar at the...
, John Hall and Orleans, John Hartford
John Hartford
John Cowan Hartford was an American folk, country and bluegrass composer and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and banjo, as well as for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style, and extensive knowledge of Mississippi River lore...
, Juan-Carlos Formell, Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield was an American blues vocalist and harmonica player, who founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and performed at the original Woodstock Festival...
, Bonnie Raitt, David Sanborn
David Sanborn
David Sanborn is an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album Taking Off in 1975, but has been playing the saxophone since before he was in high school...
, Vassar Clements
Vassar Clements
Vassar Clements was a Grammy Award- winning American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and bluegrass along with roots also in country and other musical...
, Lowell George
Lowell George
Lowell Thomas George was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, who was the main guitarist and songwriter for the rock band Little Feat.- Early years :...
and Little Feat
Little Feat
Little Feat is an American rock band formed by singer-songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles....
, Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
, Norman Blake
Norman Blake (American musician)
Norman Blake is an instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter. In a career spanning more than 50 years Blake has played in a number of folk and Country groups...
, Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
, Kate Taylor
Kate Taylor
Kate Taylor is an American folk singer, originally from Boston, Massachusetts.-Biography:Kate was born in Boston and grew up with her four brothers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where her father was Dean of the medical school at the University of North Carolina...
, Howling Wolf, Ferron
Ferron
Ferron, born Debby Foisy on , is a Canadian folk singer/songwriter and poet. In addition to being one of Canada's most famous folk musicians, she is one of the most influential writers and performers of women's music, and an important influence on later musicians such as Ani DiFranco, Mary Gauthier...
, June Millington
June Millington
June Millington is a Philippine-American guitarist, who along with her sister bassist Jean Millington, drummer Alice de Buhr, and keyboardist Nickey Barclay founded Fanny, which was signed with Warner Brothers' Reprise Records in 1969 and released five albums by 1974, including Fanny, Charity...
and The Master Musicians of Jajouka.
During 2008 and 2009 Zoss appeared frequently with B.B. King in theaters across the United States. In addition, he has toured extensively throughout the U.S., performing both as a solo artist and also with the Joel Zoss Trio at such venues as The Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, Philadelphia Folk Festival
Philadelphia Folk Festival
The Philadelphia Folk Festival is an annual folk music festival near Schwenksville, Pennsylvania in the vicinity of Philadelphia. Begun in 1962, the four-day festival is sponsored by the non-profit Philadelphia Folksong Society. The event hosts contemporary and traditional artists in genres...
, Max’s Kansas City, The Main Point
The Main Point
The Main Point was a small coffeehouse venue on Lancaster Ave. in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The club was famous for its small intimate atmosphere and inexpensive ticket prices...
, The Beacon Theater, The Bottom Line
Bottom Line
The Bottom Line was a music venue at 15 West Fourth Street between Mercer Street and Greene Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
, The Living Room, Club Helsinki, The Cutting Room, The Cellar Door
The Cellar Door
The Cellar Door was a music club at 34th and M Street NW in Washington, D.C. from 1965 through 1981. It emerged from The Shadows, Georgetown, Washington, D.C. It was one of the premier music spots in Washington and was the genesis as well as a tryout for larger markets...
, Passim, Caffe Lena
Caffè Lena
Located in Saratoga Springs, New York, Caffè Lena is the oldest continually running coffee house in the United States. Founded in 1960 by Bill and Lena Spencer, it features acoustic concerts and cultural events showcasing folk music, traditional music, and singer-songwriters of a wide range...
, The Ashgrove, The Bitter End
The Bitter End
The Bitter End is a nightclub in New York City's Greenwich Village. It opened its doors in 1961 at 147 Bleecker Street under the auspices of owner Fred Weintraub. The club changed its name to The Other End during the 1970s...
, Folk City, Johnny D's, The Paradise, The Bushnell, The Hooker-Dunham Theatre, The Iron Horse Music Hall, The Keswick Theater, and the Northampton Academy of Music.
As a solo performer and with his trio, Zoss, who also plays gimbri and oud, performs original compositions and occasionally adds traditional pieces such as those by Elizabeth Cotten
Elizabeth Cotten
Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten was an American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter.A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach involved using a right-handed guitar , not re-strung for left-handed playing, essentially, holding a right-handed...
, Leadbelly
Leadbelly
Huddie William Ledbetter was an iconic American folk and blues musician, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced....
, Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences...
, and Robert Johnson. His trio includes Guy DeVito, formerly of FAT, on bass, and Billy Klock, on drums. Bassist Guy DeVito has recorded and performed with his band FAT (Atlantic Recording Corp.] and [RCA) and with Felix Pappalardi
Felix Pappalardi
Felix A. Pappalardi Jr. was an American music producer, songwriter, vocalist, and bass guitarist.- Early life :Pappalardi was born in the Bronx, New York...
, John Kay
John Kay (musician)
John Kay is a German-Canadian singer, songwriter and guitarist known as the frontman of Steppenwolf...
and Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf (band)
Steppenwolf are a Canadian-American rock group that was prominent in the late 1960s. The group was formed in 1967 in Los Angeles by vocalist John Kay, guitarist Michael Monarch, bassist Rushton Moreve, keyboardist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton after the dissolution of Toronto group The...
, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, and Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
. Drummer Billy Klock is a graduate of the Hartford Conservatory of Music who has kept time and recorded with many major players, most recently touring nationally with Greg Piccolo and Heavy Juice, formerly of Roomful of Blues
Roomful of Blues
Roomful Of Blues is an American blues and swing revival big band based in Rhode Island. With a recording career that spans over 40 years, they have toured worldwide and recorded many albums. Roomful of Blues, according to The Chicago Sun-Times, “Swagger, sway and swing with energy and precision...
.
Since 1994 Zoss has been the annual recipient of a Special Music Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ASCAP. His 2008 album, Lila, was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by June Millington
June Millington
June Millington is a Philippine-American guitarist, who along with her sister bassist Jean Millington, drummer Alice de Buhr, and keyboardist Nickey Barclay founded Fanny, which was signed with Warner Brothers' Reprise Records in 1969 and released five albums by 1974, including Fanny, Charity...
, leader of the all-female rock band Fanny
Fanny (band)
Fanny was an American girl band, led by June Millington. They were pioneers as one of the first rock bands to feature all women, and the third to sign to a major record label, after Goldie & the Gingerbreads and The Pleasure Seekers...
.
Lila
Lila, released in 2008 on Zoss’ Catalan label, has thirteen tracks, all but one of which are original compositions. The exception is "Oh, Babe It Ain’t No Lie" (Elizabeth CottenElizabeth Cotten
Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten was an American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter.A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach involved using a right-handed guitar , not re-strung for left-handed playing, essentially, holding a right-handed...
). "Sarah’s Song," was also on his earlier Arista album. The other eleven tracks were: "Oh, Jerusalem;" "Pushing the River;" "Mother Wanted You Home;" "Cantina Bodega;" "Till I Met You;" "Pretty Flowers;" "Touchstone;" "In My Dreams;" "The Token;" "Junkers Blues;" and "‘Tis of Thee."
Author or co-author
- Diamonds in the Rough: The Untold History of Baseball (revised edition with an epilogue by the authors, with John S. Bowman), Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press, 2004.
- The Pictorial History of Baseball (revised edition, with John S. Bowman), Thunder Bay Press, World Publications Group, 2002.
- The Nixons of Westfield and Ireland, Modern Memoirs, 1999.
- Diamonds in the Rough: The Untold History of Baseball, (revised edition, with John S. Bowman), Contemporary Books, 1996.
- The History of Major League Baseball, (with John S. Bowman) Random House, 1992.
- Diamonds in the Rough: The Untold History of Baseball, (with John S. Bowman) Macmillan, 1989.
- Illustrated History of Baseball, (pseudonymously as Alex Chadwick), Crown, 1988.
- Greatest Moments in Baseball, Exeter, 1987.
- Texas, Bison Books, 1986.
- The Pictorial History of Baseball, (with John S. Bowman), W.H. Smith, 1986.
- The American League, (with John S. Bowman), Bison, 1986.
- The National League, (with John S. Bowman), W.H. Smith, 1986.
- Chronicle, A novel: Simon & Schuster, 1980.
Contributor or editor
- New Worlds: An Anthology (Edited by Michael Moorcock), 2004. Fiction, “The Valve Transcript.”
- Modern Social Theory: Roots and Branches, Roxbury Press, 1999.
- Questioning the Media, Sage Publications, 1995.
- American Journey: Westward Expansion (CD-ROM), Research Publications International, 1995.
- Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
- Who's Who in African-American History, Smithmark, 1994.
- On the Vineyard II, Simon Press, 1990. Fiction: "A Floating World."
- The World Almanac Who's Who of Film, World Almanac, 1987.
- Great Generals of the American Civil War and their Battles, Hamlyn (England), 1986.
- New England, Longmeadow Press, 1986.
- History of the U.S. Cavalry, Hamlyn (England), 1985.
- American Furniture, Exeter, 1985.
- The Vietnam War: An Almanac, World Almanac, 1985.
- The Twentieth Century: An Almanac, World Almanac, 1984.
- Works in Progress #2, Doubleday, 1971.
Periodicals
- Integrative Medicine Communications (IMC), Article: “Ulcerative Colitis,” 1999.
- Currents, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Fall 1996. Article: “Fields of Dreams” (self-replenishing oil fields).
- Currents, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Fall 1995. Article: “Summer Fellows by the Sea (summer student fellowship program.
- The Beat, Vol. 14 No. 3, 1995. Lyric: “Bob Marley International.”
- Currents, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), spring 1995. Article: "A Box of Sound" (marine seismology).
- Rhythms, spring, 1992. Cover article "James Taylor: An Exclusive Interview."
- Rhythms, winter, 1991. "The Writers Behind the Stars."
- Fiction: "The Valve Transcript," PEN short story competition winner, 1985, syndicated nationally.
- New Worlds Number 216 (London, England), September 1979. Fiction: "Flat Face of the Flowering Wood."
- New Worlds, edited by Michael Moorcock (London, England), 1968. Fiction: "The New Agent."