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The writing process

Around 1961, Burt took a leave of absence from his column, and Burt and Jane began the long process of research and writing – interviewing friends and family, and talking to Sammy every night for hours wherever in the world he was performing. By 1963, the Boyars found themselves with a mammoth 1,000 page manuscript which no publishing house in New York would touch – and they had tried them all.

The Boyars had made two choices which made their chances of finding a publisher remote, but ultimately contributed to the book’s popular appeal once published. Firstly, the text eschewed the usual dates, facts, and detail that were found in the average biography of the time – instead Yes I Can was written with a strong first-person narrative drive that focussed on the story first and foremost. Secondly, the book consisted predominately of dialogue (obviously invented) between Sammy and the people in his life. These choices gave the book the qualities of a captivating novel, a movie on the page, and readers loved it.

Finally, Roger Straus of Farrar, Straus and Giroux agreed to publish it, after which the book went through years of editing hell. The first editor insisted on third-person voice, the second editor re-wrote Sammy’s language to improve his grammar to Eton quality, the third editor wanted to change Sammy’s rationale for conversion to Judaism as well as his attitude to civil rights, and the fourth editor cut whole swathes of the manuscript until several threads of the story no longer connected. The Boyars rejected all these changes, and these editors. Eventually, Roger Straus decided to edit the book himself – and successfully cut material without altering the integrity of the book.

At a still-too-long 630 pages, Yes I Can was scheduled for release in the autumn of 1965. In 1964, Sammy had opened on Broadway in Golden Boy and the book’s final title had been taken from a song written for Sammy’s character Joe Wellington by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams. The life-affirming number “Yes I Can” was actually cut from the show during try-outs as the production moved from Philadelphia to Boston, despite the fact that Sammy had already recorded it for Reprise Records. Following the autobiography’s success, the song was returned to the show for Golden Boy’s London run in 1968.