4.5
At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing
ByPublisher Description
A collection of essays by James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, and other beloved American writers on the primal contest in the boxing ring—and the crazy carnival world outside it
From neighborhood gyms and smoke-filled arenas to star-studded casinos and exotic locales, American writers have chronicled unforgettable stories about determination and dissipation, about great champions and punch-drunk has-beens, about colorful entourages and outrageous promoters, and, inevitably along the way, about race, class, and violence in America. Like baseball, boxing has a vivid culture and language all its own, one that has proven irresistible to career journalists and literary writers alike.
The Library of America presents a gritty and glittering anthology of a century of the very best writing and reportage about the fights. Here is Jack London on the immortal Jack Johnson; H. L. Mencken and Irvin S. Cobb on Jack Dempsey vs. Georges Carpentier, dubbed “The Fight of the Century”; Richard Wright on Joe Louis’s historic victory over Max Schmeling; A. J. Liebling’s brilliantly comic portrait of a manager who really identifies with his fighter; Jimmy Cannon on the inimitable Archie Moore; James Baldwin and Gay Talese on the haunted Floyd Patterson; George Plimpton on Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X; Norman Mailer on the “Rumble in the Jungle”; Mark Kram on the “Thrilla in Manila”; Pete Hamill on legendary trainer and manager Cus D’Amato; Mark Kriegel on Oscar de la Hoya; and David Remnick and Joyce Carol Oates on Mike Tyson. National Book Award-winning novelist Colum McCann (Let the Great World Spin) weighs in with a foreword.
From neighborhood gyms and smoke-filled arenas to star-studded casinos and exotic locales, American writers have chronicled unforgettable stories about determination and dissipation, about great champions and punch-drunk has-beens, about colorful entourages and outrageous promoters, and, inevitably along the way, about race, class, and violence in America. Like baseball, boxing has a vivid culture and language all its own, one that has proven irresistible to career journalists and literary writers alike.
The Library of America presents a gritty and glittering anthology of a century of the very best writing and reportage about the fights. Here is Jack London on the immortal Jack Johnson; H. L. Mencken and Irvin S. Cobb on Jack Dempsey vs. Georges Carpentier, dubbed “The Fight of the Century”; Richard Wright on Joe Louis’s historic victory over Max Schmeling; A. J. Liebling’s brilliantly comic portrait of a manager who really identifies with his fighter; Jimmy Cannon on the inimitable Archie Moore; James Baldwin and Gay Talese on the haunted Floyd Patterson; George Plimpton on Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X; Norman Mailer on the “Rumble in the Jungle”; Mark Kram on the “Thrilla in Manila”; Pete Hamill on legendary trainer and manager Cus D’Amato; Mark Kriegel on Oscar de la Hoya; and David Remnick and Joyce Carol Oates on Mike Tyson. National Book Award-winning novelist Colum McCann (Let the Great World Spin) weighs in with a foreword.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities2 Reviews
4.5
Andrew Avery
Created 7 months agoShare
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“Something about the way boxing was covered in America in the early part of the 20th century. The writing here really ticks a lot of boxes for me.”Ryan Gerber
Created over 10 years agoShare
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About Various
GEORGE KIMBALL (1943–2011) was a longtime sportswriter (Boston Herald) and the author of Four Kings: Leonrad, Hagler, Hearns, and Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing.
JOHN SCHULIAN was a sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Daily News before moving to Hollywood, where he was the co-creator of Xena: Warrior Princess. He is the author of Writers’ Fighters and Other Sweet Scientists. Both are recipients of the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism, awarded by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
JOHN SCHULIAN was a sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Daily News before moving to Hollywood, where he was the co-creator of Xena: Warrior Princess. He is the author of Writers’ Fighters and Other Sweet Scientists. Both are recipients of the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism, awarded by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
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