The Greatest Boxing Stories Ever Told: Thirty-Six Incredible Tales from the Ring

By: Jeff Silverman

Book Overview

"Every once in a while, a book publisher comes up with a great concept for a series of books that deserve more than superficial recognition. Such a series is The Greatest (fill in the blank) Stories Ever Told, anthologies that should win places on many bedside tables. On the long winter nights that lie ahead, such stories make great reading." -The Lexington County Chronicle "THE GREATEST BOXING STORIES EVER TOLD assembles some of the best writing...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592284795
• ISBN13: 9781592284795
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Lyons Press
• Length: 366 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

sweet boxing poetry

Just a great sampling of writing on the sweet science from many different perspectives. The one by Daniel Mendoza is amazing,as he was one of the first champions - from the turn of the 18th century. The way he thought and expressed himself is so interesting. Pearce Egan was the first great boxing writer, and his piece was mesmerizing. Frank DeFord on Billy Conn was great, as was Jack London on the Johnson-Jeffries fight. Jimmy Cannon, Ring Lardner, Paul Gallico, and A.J. Liebling all contribute classic stuff. I like learning about the PEOPLE involved in boxing as much as the events and results of the fights, and this book was right up my alley.

Great place to start for fight writing

This collection has a ton of good material that will give you a sample of the various sources of high quality boxing writing available if you're interested. The time periods involved go all the way back to the early 1800s, not counting the surprisingly awesome passage by Homer from The Iliad. Probably the most heavily-featured period is from around the 1930s-1960s. Other than that Homer piece, I also especially enjoyed the passages by Daniel Mendoza, Heywood Broun, John Lardner, and W.C. Heinz. If you're looking to get into boxing writing, or if you're an MMA fan looking for something to read to make up for the relative lack of MMA writing, this is definitely a good place to start. You do have the inherent weakness of the anthology where you end up finding a few things you really like that are over before you know it, but with the internet you can take the names of the authors and easily gain access to more of the stuff you like best. If you want a sample of the type of quality piece contained in this collection, look up "Sport for Art's Sake" by Heywood Broun. You can find it on Google Books, it's my favorite passage from the entire package.

pulling no punches

A beautifully edited anthology that will appeal not only to devotees of the sweet science, but to any fan of great writing. Silverman includes work by some of America's greatest essayists (Liebling, Plimpton, Mailer, Baldwin) and most popular fiction authors (O. Henry, Jack London, Dashiell Hammett, Damon Runyon, Richard Ford). The excerpt from Pierce Egan's 1829 classic BOXIANA (a favorite of A.J. Liebling's) is a special treat. The only thing missing is David Remnick on Muhammad Ali; but you can't expect everything from a 368-page collection. Highly recommended.

Awesome...

the only thing that I can rite negatively about this boox is that there isn't any story about me. Did you know that I'm a former amateur boxing champion of Alvin, Texas.

A knockout

There is so much good writing on boxing that it's hard to know where to start picking the best, but Jeff Silverman did an amazing job of putting together a collection that honors the old warhorses and still comes up with new surprises. Some of the great writers of the 20th century are represented with their short stories -- Ring Lardner, Damon Runyon, Dashiell Hammett, Irwin Shaw and Jack London. It was fun to find that writers like O. Henry and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about boxing, too. In the non-fiction corner, selections by Frank Deford, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, James Baldwin and Robert Lipsyte were all first rate, and some of the really old writing from the 18th and 19th century was lively and entertaining. With its sweep of boxing history and literature, it's a must for every boxing fan's bookshelf.