The Muhammad Ali Reader - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0688166202 ISBN 13: 9780688166205

Publisher: Rob Weisbach Books, 1999

Synopsis

Muhammad Ali is The Greatest. From Heavyweight Champion of the World to his ongoing battle with Parkinson's disease, Ali has captured the imagination of our finest writers and won admiration and scrutiny the world over.

With sixteen pages of classic photographs, this collection brings together thirty-two essays, interviews, and articles by the best contemporary sportswriters and literary journalists. Spanning four decades, these pieces chronicle the highs and lows of Ali's career -- his first pro fight in New York; his affiliation with the Nation of Islam, his epic battles with Joe Frazier and George Forman; his Vietnam draft refusal, and the subsequent stripping of his title; and his ultimate return to the spotlight at the 1996 Olympics -- memorable milestones in a truly extraordinary life.

Awe-inspiring, controversial, and beloved, Muhammad Ali, the man and the legend, comes out swinging in a collective portrait that is as illuminating as it is celebratory.

About this title

About the Author

Gerald Early is the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters, professor of English and of African and Afro-American Studies, and director of the Center for Humanities at Washington University. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is the editor of several volumes, including This Is Where I Came In: Black America in the 1960s; The Sammy Davis Jr. Reader; Body Language: Writers on Sport; Speech and Power; Lure and Loathing: Essays on Race, Identity, and the Ambivalence of Assimilation; and My Soul's High Song: The Collected Works of Countee Cullen, as well as the author of The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture, which won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism; One Nation Under a Groove: Motown and American Culture; Daughters: On Family and Fatherhood; and Tuxedo Junction.

With sixteen pages of classic photographs, this collection brings together thirty-two essays, interviews, and articles by the best contemporary sportswriters and literary journalists. Spanning four decades, these pieces chronicle the highs and lows of Ali's career -- his first pro fight in New York; his affiliation with the Nation of Islam, his epic battles with Joe Frazier and George Forman; his Vietnam draft refusal, and the subsequent stripping of his title; and his ultimate return to the spotlight at the 1996 Olympics -- memorable milestones in a truly extraordinary life.

Awe-inspiring, controversial, and beloved, Muhammad Ali, the man and the legend, comes out swinging in a collective portrait that is as illuminating as it is celebratory.

Reviews

"A multifaceted portrait of the man known to all as "The Greatest."

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Muhammad Ali -- or Cassius Clay -- just might be one of the greatest heavyweight champions this country has ever produced.
One thing is certain. He is the most hated.
He is hated because he is a Muslim.
He is also hated because he speaks his mind.
Some members of the sports press don't like either one of these things.
But what they seem to dislike most is that Clay is a Black Muslim and an outspoken black man.

While, in my opinion, some of the things that Clay says and does rate criticism, I do not feel that he deserves much of the bad press which he gets. I know what he is going through. For, during my own career in sports, I came to learn that there are many writers who like tame Negroes who "stay in their place." Of course, by backing up his words with deeds, Clay or Ali has clearly demonstrated where his "place" is -- right up there at the top.

I think it is most significant that some of the writers, even the so-called liberals, do not want to grant this young champion his dues. One of the sports' writing fraternity whom I have considered a liberal for a long time is Howard Cosell. And Cosell has appeared to be in Clay's corner for several years. Yet, in a recent Wide World of Sports television interview with Clay, it struck me that Howard was being quite vicious in the way he tried to sway public opinion to his anti-Clay way of thinking.

Of course there are some liberals who always like to bow to the stands and earn the roar of the approval of the masses. If this is the way Cosell is going, I hate to see it. Clay, however, seems capable of taking care of himself in the exchange of words as well as that of blows

Edition details

• Publisher: Rob Weisbach Books
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0688166202
• ISBN 13: 9780688166205
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 300
• Editor: Gerald Early