Battling Siki
A Tale of Ring Fixes, Race, and Murder in the 1920s
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of Arkansas Press
Published:30th Jul '08
Should be back in stock very soon
This is the first biography of the controversial and misunderstood African boxer, now in paper. Battling Siki (1887-1925) was once one of the four or five most recognizable black men in the world and was written about by a host of great writers, including George Bernard Shaw, Ring Lardner, Damon Runyon, Janet Flanner, and Ernest Hemingway. Peter Benson's lively biography of the first African to win a world championship in boxing delves into the complex world of sports, race, colonialism, and the cult of personality in the early twentieth century.
No man ever came out of Africa who had a more dramatic life or had a more tragic ending." - Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, at Siki's funeral
"That extraordinary Sengalese." - Henry Miller, from Plexus
"Ever since colonialism has existed, the Whites have been paid to bash in the faces of the Blacks. For once a Black has been paid to do the same thing to a White." - Ho Chi Minh, from About Siki
"One of the most comprehensive and intriguing boxing biographies in recent memory, and deserves high marks for refurbishing the image of a worthwhile and worthy champion." - Peter Ehrmann, The Ring
"Has all the elements of a Shakespearean tragedy set in the Roaring Twenties." - Thomas Hauser, author of Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times
"A tremendous book and useful to understanding race, sports, and crime in the 1920s." - Sport History Review
ISBN: 9781557288882
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 543g
360 pages