Christopher Klein is a history and travel writer and the author of two previous books. A frequent contributor to The Boston Globe and History.com, he has also written for The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, Harvard Magazine, Red Sox Magazine, ESPN.com, Smithsonian.com, and AmericanHeritage.com. Visit him at christopherklein.com.
“From the first page to the last, Klein’s prose retains its powers
of enchantment and illumination. It is one of the best boxing books
ever penned.”
—Boston Globe
“In this muscular, relentlessly detailed book, Christopher Klein
not only tells Sullivan’s story but also documents the evolution of
boxing from illicit bare-knuckle savagery akin to today’s
steel-cage extravaganzas to the ‘sweet science’ of legally
sanctioned bouts between skillful gloved opponent.”
—Wall Street Journal
“John L. Sullivan was perhaps the first real American sports
superstar, and especially because he meant so much as a minority
champion, he prefigured Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Billie Jean
King and the many other athletes who became genuine heroes to the
people they represented. The Great John L. is as important a
cultural figure as he was a sports idol.”
—Frank Deford, journalist, Sports
Illustrated senior contributing writer, author of Over Time: My
Life as a Sportswriter
“You don’t have to be a boxing fan to want to time travel back to
the 1880s and sample some nickel beer, free lunch, horse trolleys,
and the Babel of immigrants. Christopher Klein, in this
well-researched book, delivers the sportin’ life of the Gilded Age
when Americans crowned their first athlete-king, John L. Sullivan,
in coast-to-coast banner headlines.”
—Richard Zacks, best-selling author of
Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving
New York
"[A] treasure trove of information that covers sports, celebrity,
crime, politics and entertainment as [Christopher Klein] tracks the
John L. Sullivan, "Boston Strong Boy," across the country and globe
as he rises from the tenement to the heavyweight championship and
everything that came with it."
—Publishers Weekly
"A well-researched, enjoyable biography of boxing's first
heavyweight superstar, John L. Sullivan (1858–1918).... Attentive
as he is to historical details, Klein’s storytelling gift is most
evident in how he depicts 'John L.' as a beloved hero who was
eventually undone by ego and who had a legendary appetite for food
and drink. Though largely forgotten, Sullivan was the great
'American Hercules' who ruled the late-19th-century boxing world
and helped usher it into the modern sporting age.... A lively,
consistently entertaining sports biography."
—Kirkus Reviews
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