Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir

Wait Till Next Year is Doris Kearns Goodwin's memoir of her childhood in the 1950s suburbs of New York, centered on her family and her love of baseball. The book recreates the postwar era when neighborhoods were divided among Dodger, Giant, and Yankee fans, and corner stores served as gathering places for shared stories. Goodwin describes the people who shaped her early years: her mother, who instilled in her a love of reading but whose serious illness confined her to the home, and her father, who introduced her to baseball and the Dodgers—a team featuring Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, and Gil Hodges. The memoir centers on two pivotal events: the Dodgers' departure from Brooklyn in 1957 and her mother's death shortly after, both of which marked the end of an era and the end of Goodwin's childhood.