At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing: A Library of America Special Publication

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.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Library of America
Published: 03/03/2011
ISBN: 9781598530926
Pages: 560
Weight: 1.81lbs
Size: 9.29h x 6.37w x 1.31d

Review Citations: Booklist 03/01/2011 pg. 11
New York Times Book Review 06/05/2011 pg. 9
New York Times Book Review 06/12/2011 pg. 30