Tony Castro

A thoughtful glimpse into the childhood of Norma Jeane Mortenson's childhood and how it shaped her into the iconic Marilyn Monroe for the 100th anniversary of her birth. At the fragile intersection of myth and memory stands a girl—often eclipsed by the legend she became. The Girl Who Would Be Marilyn Monroe dares to strip away the satin, the spotlight, the studio-invented shine, to reveal the tender child beneath: a girl marked not by fame but by longing. Longing for love, for safety, for the kind of permanence the world never offered her. This is not simply another biography. It is a resurrection. A candlelit portrait drawn from decades of first-hand research and rare interviews with those who knew her—not only Marilyn the icon, but Norma Jeane the girl. Tony Castro draws on intimate conversations with famed entertainment writer James Bacon; Marilyn’s close friends: Frank Sinatra; actresses Susan Strasberg and Mamie Van Doren; actor and The Misfits co-star Eli Wallach; ex-husband Joe DiMaggio; and child star-turned-Hollywood raconteur Skip E. Lowe. They offer unparalleled access into Marilyn’s earliest, most hidden self. These are stories shared not as interviews but as confidences—shaped by the trust of friendship. And herein lies the soul of this work: a new and intimate rendering of the Marilyn we rarely allow ourselves to see. Through these private recollections, we hear her voice—not the whispery affectation of the screen siren, but the real girl’s voice, unvarnished, aching, often uncertain. What emerges is not the blonde bombshell, but the child whispering to a mirror, trying on hope like a costume. This is, at last, the story of Norma Jeane.

An unflinching, all-access look at the friendship between Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin—two beloved Yankees and flawed heroes who embodied both triumph and self-destruction Through meticulous research and exclusive interviews with the late Mantle and Martin—and those who knew them best—journalist and historian Tony Castro reveals the double-edged sword of their friendship: how the New York Yankees legends, an inseparable duo, epitomized the swagger and spirit of their era while paying the price for fame’s excesses. Mantle, the golden boy blessed with power, speed, and charm. Martin, the fiery underdog whose grit made him indispensable. While leading a 1950s Yankees dynasty, they lived life at full throttle: wild partying, barroom brawls, and runins with the law. As the years wore on, the very traits that made Mantle and Martin extraordinary figures exacted a heavy price, but in Mickey & Billy, we see that their friendship was the saving grace. Only together could Mickey and Billy face life’s next difficult pitch.

I really do believe I would be way up at the top of everything if I hadn’t been injured. When I was healthy, I really believe I was the best of anyone I ever saw play.—Mickey Mantle, reflecting on his careerMickey Mantle is one of baseball’s all-time greats. Playing for the New York Yankees for his entire professional career, Mantle was named to the All-Star team for 11 consecutive seasons, won three MVP awards, and was a seven-time World Series champion. He quickly became an icon who achieved hero status even while playing through injuries for most of his career.In Mantle: The Best There Ever Was, Tony Castro makes the impassioned argument that Mickey Mantle truly was the greatest ballplayer of all time. Acclaimed by the New York Times as the definitive biographer of baseball’s fabled number 7, Castro shares many of his personal conversations with Mantle, demystifying the legend and revealing intimate, never-before-published details from Mantle’s personal life. In addition, Castro offers illuminating new insights into Mantle’s extraordinary career, including the head-turning conclusion based on the evolution of analytics that the beloved Yankee switch-hitting slugger may ultimately win acclaim as having fulfilled the weighty expectation once placed on him: being even greater than Babe Ruth. Drawing from hundreds of interviews with ex-teammates, friends, and family, Castro masterfully blends Mantle’s public and private selves to present a fully rounded portrait of this complex, misunderstood national hero.

Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris are forever intertwined in baseball history thanks to the unforgettable 1961 season, when the two Yankee icons spurred each other to new heights in pursuit of Babe Ruth's home run record. History has largely overlooked the bond between the two men not as titans of their sport, but as people. Guided by Tony Castro, bestselling author and foremost chronicler of Mantle, readers will journey into history, from the Yankees’ blockbuster trade for Maris, whose acquisition re-ignited Mantle’s career after a horrendous 1959 season, to the heroics of 1961 and far beyond. This dual biography is a thoroughly researched, emotionally gripping portrait that brings Yankees lore alive.

Named by Boston’s NPR News Station as one of the Best Books of 2016 In 1959, the most famous literary figure of his time set out in the twilight of his life to recapture his early success in the 1920s. The experience tested all the credos of bravery and grace under pressure he had lived by. Just months before turning sixty, Ernest Hemingway headed for Spain to write a new epilogue for his bullfighting classic Death in the Afternoon, as well as an article for Life magazine. His hosts were Bill and Anne Davis, wealthy Americans in pursuit of the avant-garde life of the 1920s’ post-war expatriates, who lavishly entertained celebrities and the literati, from Noel Coward to Laurence Olivier, at their historic villa, La Consula. This hacienda would become Hemingway’s home during the most pivotal months of the Nobel laureate’s denouement, and Bill Davis—fellow adventurer who had survived the Depression running arms during the Spanish Civil War—would become his friend and bullfight-traveling companion. Looking for Hemingway explores that incredible friendship and offers a rare intimate look into the final period of the legendary author’s life, giving comprehension not only of a writer’s despair but of suicide as a not unreasonable conclusion to a blasted existence.

I really do believe I would be way up at the top of everything if I hadn’t been injured. When I was healthy, I really believe I was the best of anyone I ever saw play.—Mickey Mantle, reflecting on his career Mickey Mantle is one of baseball’s all-time greats. Playing for the New York Yankees for his entire professional career, Mantle was named to the All-Star team for 11 consecutive seasons, won three MVP awards, and was a seven-time World Series champion. He quickly became an icon who achieved hero status even while playing through injuries for most of his career. In Mantle: The Best There Ever Was, Tony Castro makes the impassioned argument that Mickey Mantle truly was the greatest ballplayer of all time. Acclaimed by the New York Times as the definitive biographer of baseball’s fabled number 7, Castro shares many of his personal conversations with Mantle, demystifying the legend and revealing intimate, never-before-published details from Mantle’s personal life. In addition, Castro offers illuminating new insights into Mantle’s extraordinary career, including the head-turning conclusion based on the evolution of analytics that the beloved Yankee switch-hitting slugger may ultimately win acclaim as having fulfilled the weighty expectation once placed on him: being even greater than Babe Ruth. Drawing from hundreds of interviews with ex-teammates, friends, and family—including Mantle’s widow and longtime mistress—Castro masterfully blends Mantle’s public and private selves to present a fully rounded portrait of this complex, misunderstood national hero.

DiMag & Mick is a portrait of DiMaggio and Mantle as the old and young exemplars of what was a more confident, masterful age not only in baseball but in the country where they were held up as cultural heroes over two generations, symbolic of an America celebrating its recent triumph over Nazism and ever-curious about the new age of color television, rocket ships, and technology. Tony Castro shows DiMag and Mick as fathers and sons, rebels and heroes, and reveals the rite of passage of two men who would go down in baseball immortality – DiMaggio as he reluctantly prepares to leave the spotlight of adoration and hero-worship for glitzy world of Marilyn’s exploding Hollywood celebrity, and Mantle in his awkward attempt to leave his country roots of Dust Bowl Oklahoma for the big city exposure and expectations of greatness being placed on him. Yankee legend and glory holds a special magic all its own, and Castro examines the heart and soul of that mystique, especially the bond of the players themselves and how that came to breed and spread the perception that there was any animosity between DiMaggio and Mantle – two polarizing personalities who drove many teammates away from one and galvanized their friendship with the other.

In the life of the great cultural icon baseball slugger Mickey Mantle, we see America’s romance with boldness, its celebration of muscle, and its comfort in power during a time when might did make right. But if his life symbolized the great expectations of America in the 1950s, it also epitomized the dashed dreams of a troubled generation in the 1960s and its unrealistic hopes for achievement. Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son is both an explosive biography of one of the world’s most fascinating and enduring sports heroes and a telling look at the American society of his time. During six years of research, former Sports Illustrated writer Tony Castro interviewed more than 250 friends, teammates, lovers, acquaintances, and drinking buddies of one of America’s most famous sports heroes.What The New York Times praised as the definitive biography of baseball and pop culture icon Mickey Mantle by the acclaimed Sports Illustrated writer who knew The Mick personally, played golf with him often and has authored a celebrated Mickey Mantle Trilogy that includes DiMag & Mick and Mantle: The Best That Ever Was.