The Greatest Boxing Stories Ever Told: Thirty-Six Incredible Tales from the Ring

Rating:
Summary: A knockout
Review: There is so much good writing on boxing that it's hard to know where to start picking the best, but Jeff Silverman did an amazing job of putting together a collection that honors the old warhorses and still comes up with new surprises. Some of the great writers of the 20th century are represented with their short stories -- Ring Lardner, Damon Runyon, Dashiell Hammett, Irwin Shaw and Jack London. It was fun to find that writers like O. Henry and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about boxing, too. In the non-fiction corner, selections by Frank Deford, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, James Baldwin and Robert Lipsyte were all first rate, and some of the really old writing from the 18th and 19th century was lively and entertaining. With its sweep of boxing history and literature, it's a must for every boxing fan's bookshelf.