Originally published in 1958, this is the autobiography of renowned U.S. boxing writer and collector, Nat Fleischer. It not only tells the fascinating story of the author himself, but crucially allows the reader a firsthand glimpse into the ring scene of the first half of the 20th century."This is a story which nobody has produced in the past, and certainly is not going to duplicate in the future."It is the life story of a man who lived through increasingly exciting eras of t...

THE TRUE STORY OF THE MANASSA MAULERHe started out as a mine mucker and digger in construction camps. He fought anybody, anywhere. He got $2.50 for his first "regular" match. He was a hungry, penniless kid. Then almost overnight he was champion of the world and a millionaire and the idol of the nation.IT'S ALL HERE—THE WHOLE THRILLING TRUTH!...the amazing story of the massacre of Giant Jess Willard, who was supposed to beat Dempsey to a pulp but who couldn't come out f...

Nat Fleischer's memoir is a ringside chronicle of boxing's drama, romance, and hard-edged business, told by one of the sport's most seasoned witnesses. Drawing on more than fifty years in journalism and promotion, he celebrates the "sour science" as a world of courage, ambition, illusion, and hero worship, where champions are made and unmade by the chase as much as the crown. Along the way he offers vivid portraits of great fighters, memorable conversations with men like Freddy Welsh and G...

Part of a series of personal profiles written by Nat Fleischer, the founding editor of The Ring magazine. A legendary figure in the sport of boxing, Fleischer witnessed many of these historic bouts firsthand and presents here a biography of the American Middleweight champion, "The Michigan Assassin," Stanley Ketchel.Born in 1886 from a Polish family in Belmont, Michigan, Stanley Ketchel is listed to this day as one of the greatest Middleweight champions of all time. Perhap...

The first part of Nat Fleischer's Black Dynamite: The Story of the Negro in the Prize Ring from 1782 to 1938. This volume follows the careers of pioneering Black boxers, covering decades of fights from the late 1700s to the 1880s.Featured in this volume are: Bill Richmond, Tom Molineaux, Henry Sutton, Sam Robinson, James Wharton, Massa Kendrick, Sambo Sutton, Young Richmond, Bob Travers, Bob Smith, John Perry, Jemmy Robinson, John Banks, Harry Woodson, George Godfrey, Peter Jackson...

Part of a series of personal profiles written by Nat Fleischer, the founding editor of The Ring magazine. A legendary figure in the sport of boxing, Fleischer witnessed many of these historic bouts firsthand and presents here a biography of the American "King of the Lightweights," Benny Leonard.Born in 1896 in a Jewish ghetto in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Benny Leonard is often championed as the greatest Lightweight boxer of all time. His thirteen-year reign as an u...

Veteran and expert boxing writer Nat Fleischer recounts the career of Terrible Terry McGovern, who dominated the Bantam and Featherweight classes at the turn of the 20th Century. Still regarded as one of the most destructive and effective Bantamweights of all time, a stocky, fast body puncher who won 45 of his fights via knock-out in an age of iron men.Historian Barry Deskins wrote, "Short blows to the body followed by a viscous straight right is McGovern's strongest asset, particul...

“Easily the best baseball book ever produced by anyone.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer“This was the best baseball book published in 1966, it is the best baseball book of its kind now, and, if it is reissued in 10 years, it will be the best baseball book.” — PeopleFrom Lawrence Ritter, co-author of The Image of Their Greatness and The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time, comes one of the bestsellin...

A.J. Liebling's classic New Yorker pieces on the "sweet science of bruising" bring vividly to life the boxing world as it once was.The Sweet Science depicts the great events of boxing's American heyday: Sugar Ray Robinson's dramatic comeback, Rocky Marciano's rise to prominence, Joe Louis's unfortunate decline. Liebling never fails to find the human story behind the fight, and he evokes the atmosphere in the arena as distinctly as he does the goin...

Like many a Canadian kid, Stephen Smith was up on skates first thing as a boy, out in the weather chasing a puck and the promise of an NHL career. Back indoors after that didn’t quite work out, he turned to the bookshelf. That’s where, without entirely meaning to, he ended up reading all the hockey books. There was Crunch and Boom Boom, Slashing! and High Stick; there was Max Bentley: Hockey’s Dipsy-Doodle Dandy, Blue Line Murder, and

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

In this wonderful page-turner, veteran sports journalist Mike Vaccaro brings to life a bygone era in cinematic and intimate detail—and re-creates the magic and suspense of the world’s first classic series.Despite a major presidential election, the near-assassination of Teddy Roosevelt, and the most sensational trial of the young century, baseball dominated front-page headlines in October 1912. The Boston Red Sox and the New York Giants of that year—two of the finest ball clubs that...