Running in Literature

RUNNING IN LITERATURE is the first history of running as a literary subject, and in the hands of Roger Robinson, a world-class runner and world-class literary scholar, it’s “a masterful guide that crackles with wit and intelligence” (Julia Emmons Ph.D., Director, Peachtree Road Race). 

No sport has an older or more fascinating place in culture than running, with its ancient origins and a literary history of nearly three thousand years. “It’s not surprising that man’s most fundamental sport is so intertwined with literary history. Roger Robinson successfully takes the reader from era to era and author to author. Running in Literature is an excellent read” (Craig Masback, CEO, USA Track & Field). Running is an important element in some of the world’s great books, from the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer to the novels of Thomas Hardy and James Joyce. Significant poems about running and runners extend from Pindar and Ovid, Walt Whitman, Rudyard Kipling, and A. E. Housman, to new work by contemporary American poets, some published here for the first time.

Running also appears in some of humanity’s oldest oral cultures, intersecting with spiritual beliefs. Running in Literature begins and ends with writing that captures the runner’s profound interaction with the land. 

Everyone has heard of “the unforgiving minute,” “runners whom renown outran,” “Rejoice, we conquer!” and the legendary running feats of Achilles and Atalanta, Pheidippides and Tom Brown. But never before has their meaning and significance been so lucidly expounded. “It’s a treasure trove of new information about the entire history of running-related text, by a great runner and a great literature professor.” (Amby Burfoot, Executive Editor, Runner’s World, and 1968 Boston Marathon winner) 

There is no dry dust in this history. The ancient Greeks are shown not as idealized figures in polished marble but real runners, competitive, conscious of race tactics and psychology, elated to win and capable of getting tired. Robinson brings to life the runners of every period of literature—Greek warrior athletes, racing footmen, peasant wenches, hard-bitten professional “pedestrians,” and the super-runners, male and female, of our own age. “This is a tour-de-force of scholarship and creative writing—a very enjoyable read and an invaluable reference work,” says scientist, author, and ultra-runner Bernd Heinrich. “Runners are readers, and Roger’s writing expands us all, ” says Rich Benyo, editor of Marathon and Beyond.

Running in Literature single-handedly creates a new field in sports literature, and does it with eloquence and humor. “I am entranced by Roger Robinson’s wonderful easy conversational erudition. He has produced a veritable encyclopedia of running related literature,” writes Boston Marathon winner and author John J. Kelley. 

Running in Literature is an essential running book, and a running book of a totally new kind. “This is the book every reading runner needs,” writes Frank Deford, renown sports author and journalist.

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“A tour-de-force of scholarship and creative writing.” 

—Bernd Heinrich, author of Why We Run


“Every page of Running in Literature is a treasure trove.”

—Amby Burfoot, executive editor, Runner’s World, and winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon


“I am entranced by Roger Robinson’s wonderful, easy, conversational erudition.” 

—John J. Kelley, winner of the 1957 Boston Marathon, English teacher and author


“Running in Literature is the book for every serious reading runner and every devoted running reader.” 

—Frank Deford, NPR commentator and author of An American Summer and Heart of a Champion


“Robinson’s wit and intelligence crackle through this masterful guide to running’s place in literature.” 

—Julia Emmons, Ph.D., Director, Peachtree Road Race 


About the Author

Roger Robinson is a professor of English at Victoria University in New Zealand, an international running writer, and a world-class runner. He is the author of Heroes and Sparrows and Robert Louis Stevenson: His Best Pacific Writings, and editor of The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. He lives in New York City and Wellington, New Zealand.