The Muhammad Ali Reader

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.

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.