Bowerman book on track for 2008.

Byline: READIN' IN THE RAIN By Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran June 15, 2007): A story on Page G1 on Sunday quoted a Booklist review of Kenny Moore's "Bowerman and the Men of Oregon" that incorrectly described Bowerman's service in World War II. The late UO track coach fought in Italy with the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division.

Like a false-starting sprinter, word of next year's Readin' in the Rain selection is out early.

Next February's communitywide read will be "Bowerman and the Men of Oregon," homegrown writer Kenny Moore's biography of his legendary University of Oregon track and field coach, a spokeswoman for the annual event confirmed this week.

The selection is not usually announced until late fall, but word that "Bowerman" (Rodale, $28.95, 480 pages) had been picked reached area booksellers this spring.

Moore's book was considered a natural choice in the run-up to the community's June 2008 hosting of the U.S. track and field Olympic Trials, said Laura Phillips, who handles community relations for the Eugene Public Library and Readin' in the Rain. Rodale published the book in hardcover last summer and is scheduled to release a paperback version ($17.95) in September.

Moore, a North Eugene High School graduate, was a UO distance runner under Bowerman. He went on to compete in two Olympic marathons (1968 and 1972) before becoming a Sports Illustrated writer.

Booklist called the book "a fully realized portrait of (a) complicated man, tracing Bowerman's lineage back to flinty Oregon pioneering stock, through his flaming youth, his heroics as a World War II commander in the Pacific, and his breakthrough work in developing track athletes."

Phillips also confirmed the unexpected death this spring of Chris Chester, author of the 2007 Readin' in the Rain selection, "Providence of a Sparrow."

Phillips said Readin' in the Rain organizers learned of Chester's death late last month, after author liaison Mary Kontny tried to contact him to reschedule a planned appearance here that he canceled in February. Chester had canceled the talk because he was being treated for severe pain in his neck, jaw and mouth attributed to trans-mandibular joint problems.

Kontny received a response from Chester's ex-wife, who'd featured prominently in his Oregon Book Award-winning account of their life with a rescued sparrow and other birds.

"It turned out that he had cancer and didn't know it," Kontny said. "On the morning of April 17th, a tumor in his neck eroded an artery and he began bleeding into his stomach. An ambulance took him to a hospital and he died on the way."

More information is available on a Web site created by his nephew, www.chrischester .org. It includes links to some You Tube video clips of the late author with his late subject.