Tag: the sweet science
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#12: ‘Fighting Ruben Wolfe’ by Markus Zusak
‘Fighting Ruben Wolfe’ is a fiction novel written for the Young Adult audience by Markus Zusak. Set in Australia, this book is centred around two brothers, Ruben and Cameron, who accidentally find their way into the world of underground unlicensed boxing. The book explores themes of class, aggression, violence and masculinity through the eyes of…
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#11: ‘The Boxer’ by Reinhard Kleist
‘The Boxer’ by Reinhard Kleist is a non-fiction graphic novel, telling the story of Holocaust survivor Hertzko ‘Harry’ Haft. I haven’t read many graphic novels before as I find the mixture of text and detailed images a little overwhelming – as embarrassing as this is to admit, with children regularly coping with far more complicated…
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#10: ‘A Man’s World’ by Donald McRae
I LOVE THIS BOOK!! ‘A Man’s World (The Double Life of Emile Griffith)’ by Donald McRae is an utterly absorbing and, at times, distressing account of the life and boxing career of Emile Griffith. The book follows Griffith’s arrival in New York from the Virgin Islands, his beginnings as a boxer, the sad death of…
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#9: ‘On Boxing’ by Joyce Carol Oates
‘On Boxing’ is a collection of essays written by Joyce Carol Oates, which has proved pretty influential over how other writers approach boxing as a subject. It’s also the main influence for the choice of name for this blog. This book holds a rare place in the canon due to it being written by a…
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#8: ‘Boxiana’ by Pierce Egan
Now, I need to say upfront that I haven’t yet finished this book, but I wanted to include it now as I have no idea when I will get around to finishing it. ‘Boxiana, volume 1’ is a collection of journalistic articles written in the early 1800s by Pierce Egan. This book is probably the…
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#7: ‘In the Corner’ by Dave Anderson
‘In the Corner’ is a collection of interviews recorded and presented by noted sports journalist Dave Anderson. Some of the greatest American trainers from the early to mid 20th Century feature, including Angelo Dundee, Ray Arcel, Emanuel Steward and Eddie Futch. I particularly enjoyed the chapter with Goody Petronelli describing how he and his brother…
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#5: ‘The Hurt Business’ edited by George Kimball and John Schulian
‘The Hurt Business’ is a vast collection of essays and excerpts from longer pieces, spanning many decades of boxing in America. As many collections of boxing essays take the same form, I’m probably going to end up repeating myself a lot during the process of putting this blog together, but… I find the best thing…
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#4: ‘Fat City’ by Leonard Gardner
‘Fat City’ by Leonard Gardner is probably the most common internet search result when looking for (good) fiction about boxing. I can see why, as it’s a well paced and fairly vivid portrayal of a boxer chasing a dream of success (money). Some of the story may now seem a little cliché but that’s probably…
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#3: ‘Four Kings’ by George Kimball
‘Four Kings’ is a fascinating look at the overlapping careers of boxing legends Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns and Roberto Duran. After an introduction covering the upbringings and amateur careers of the quartet, each chapter of the book covers each time the four boxers fought one another. The book spans an amazing period for…
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#2: ‘The Sweet Science’ by A.J. Liebling
‘The Sweet Science’ by A. J. Liebling is probably the single most famous book about boxing, possibly due to the way that the internet regurgitates ‘best of’ lists with this title pretty much always present. That being said, it is clearly an important book on the subject. It’s probably worth saying here that I have…
Writers on Boxing 