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A.J. Liebling, The Sweet Science (1956) Liebling, who popularized the phrase "the sweet science of boxing" with this work, revisits his old sweetheart—boxing—in this book, a love of his since he was 13, and of which he wrote extensively for The New Yorker before 1939. He chronicles in this work "the last heroic cycle" of boxing, on the brink of a crisis: a "period of minor talents" produced by the draft for the Second World War and the popularization of television. In this collection of essays from The New Yorker, he covers four and a half years in the ring, from June 1951 until September 1955, encompassing the rise of Rocky Marciano and the fall of his greatest opponents. He writes about the heroes of the time: Joe Louis, Sandy Saddler, Randy Turpin, Sugar Ray Robinson, Archie Moore and Marciano, and throughout the author is nostalgic for the time before neighborhood boxing clubs were run out of business by evening TV. Liebling emulates Pierce Egan, the author of Boxiana, a collection of articles about boxing in England from the 1700's, and his admiration of Egan's work is echoed in The Sweet Science: he refers to Egan's masterpiece often, and calls Egan "the greatest writer about the ring who ever lived." Named one of The Modern Library's 100 Best Nonfiction Books for the Century Number ONE of Sports Illustrated's Top 100 Sports Books of All Time. From SI: "Pound-for-pound the top boxing writer of all time, Liebling is at his bare-knuckled best here, bobbing and weaving between superb reporting and evocative prose ... Liebling's writing is efficient yet stylish, acerbic yet soft and sympathetic. ("The sweet science, like an old rap or the memory of love, follows its victims everywhere.") He leavens these flourishes with an eye for detail worthy of Henry James. The one-two combination allows him to convey how boxing can at once be so repugnant and so alluring." From NPR: "If the above books [including On Boxing by Joyce Carol Oates and The Fight by Norman Mailer] could be considered the New Testament on boxing, then this book qualifies as the Old Testament. Liebling, an early New Yorker writer whose other enthusiams included gourmet food , wine, and Paris, wrote an exquisite tribute to the early days of boxing and the stoutheartedness of the men who participated in it." MORE: Short author profile Amazon |
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