Beginning with his triumph in the 1958 Masters, Arnold Palmer took the nation by storm with his small-town charm, “go for broke” style, and Sunday comebacks. “You finally had someone who had this charisma,” said Tiger Woods. “Everyone got hooked to the game of golf via TV because of Arnold.”

Palmer won 43 PGA Tour events in the 1960s, became the sports world’s greatest pitchman, and hobnobbed with bigwigs like Bob Hope and multiple presidents. He even guest-hosted The Tonight Show. A licensed pilot, he flew jet airplanes across the globe. As a philanthropist, he founded Arnold Palmer Medical Center, the largest facility in the country dedicated to the care of women and children.

In Arnold Palmer: A Tribute to an American Icon, authors David Fischer and David Aretha relive Palmer’s thrilling championship moments while capturing his personal charms: his warmth, humor, and candor. Rarely seen photographs and memorabilia bring his story to life.

Golfer Raymond Floyd may have summed it up best when he said that Palmer “set the standard for how superstars in every sport ought to be, in the way he has always signed autographs, in the way he has always made time for everyone . . . . And man, could he play the game.”