Death Of A Racehorse And Captain Waskow

Fascinating stuff from Paul Coover:

Hey Ben,
I was recently reading through some old Ernie Pyle stories because A) I graduated from a journalism school that bears his name on its main building, and was embarrassed about not having read more of his work and B) I want to continue to try to understand the best writing about the military for my current job. I came across something I think is pretty interesting.
I know "Death of a Racehorse," by W.C. Heinz, is a much-loved piece of sportswriting among the Gangrey crowd. I love it, too — I've memorized some of the lines, and it's what I return to when I need a reminder about how such tight writing can be so powerful. (I tend to get wordy, as you…