Kinsella, a Canadian writer who published more than 30 books, but who is remembered for just one, “Shoeless Joe,” a magical exploration of baseball and fantasy in an Iowa cornfield that inspired the 1989 film “Field of Dreams,” died Sept. 16 in Hope, B.C. Mr. Kinsella had a varied career, including as a taxi driver, government clerk and restaurant manager, before becoming a writer. He was 46 when he published his first novel, “Shoeless Joe,” in 1982. In time, a mystical reincarnation of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, a storied hitter banned from baseball’s distant past — the “he” Kinsella had hoped for — emerges through the cornstalks. Mr. Kinsella went on to publish several other novels using baseball as a theme, including “The Iowa Baseball Confederacy” and “Box Socials” and other collections of stories and nonfiction.

Source: Washington Post September 17, 2016 02:28 UTC