Muhammad Ali—arguably the finest athlete of the twentieth century and incontestably one of the most famous Americans of his time—is known the world over, not only for his boxing prowess, but for his rebellious courage and resilience against controversy. He has been both underdog and champion, villain and prince, playboy and staunch Muslim, exalted American and punished conscientious objector. He was the ultimate athlete—Heavyweight Champion of the World—and today confronts the physical debilitations of Parkinson's disease.
A one-of-a-kind volume, The Muhammad Ali Reader collects more than thirty of the best writings about this boxing legend in an incredible anthology by the greatest about The Greatest. This is the amazing story of Muhammad Ali—and the world's reaction to him—told by a stellar array of authors, athletes, and social commentators. Floyd Patterson defends Ali's right to criticize America's participation in the Vietnam War; Malcolm X explains how Ali went from "entertainer" to "threat" with his declaration as "a man of race"; Ali himself shares some intimate and definitive thoughts in a Playboy magazine interview; and Gay Talese gives us a front seat on a ride to Cuba, where Ali meets up with Fidel Castro.
Organized by decade, chapters begin with a few opening remarks by Ali himself, and a spectacular sixteen-page photo insert captures The Champ in all his guises. With an introduction by Gerald Early, one of the finest contemporary writers on boxing, The Muhammad Ali Reader confirms Ali's standing as one of the most controversial and charismatic Americans of our time.

The Muhammad Ali Reader

Biographies & Memoirs

Early, Gerald

Community & Culture

Ecco

For the many readers familiar with Gerald Early's writing, Daughters will come as no surprise; it is a book he seemed destined to write. Those readers unfamiliar with his writing are in for one of those rare pleasures of discovery, for here is a writer of extraordinary grace and intelligence. Daughters: On Family and Fatherhood is an astonishingly honest, unsentimental, and textured look at family life. It is the story of a faith struggle, as Mr. Early says in his preface, of how the members of a family come to believe in each other. It is also a story where race, oddly, plays only a very small role; class is a great deal more important. But mostly, it is a tale that turns on the mundane events of family life; how people living together understand and support each other - even take joy in knowing each other - despite petty annoyances, blatant misunderstandings, embarrassments, ordinary but stressful trials, and numerous insensitivities. With delicacy and uncanny intimacy, Gerald Early takes us into his family's - and his own - heart, and the result is one of the most profoundly redemptive memoirs in years.

Daughters: On Family And Fatherhood

Parenting & Relationships

Family Relationships

Da Capo Press

Bursting with energy and innovation, the second volume in the annual anthology collects the year's best short stories by African American authors. Dealing with all aspects of life, from the pain of war to the warmth of family, the superb tales in Best African American Fiction 2010 are a tribute to the stunning imaginations thriving in today's African American literary community. Chosen by this year's guest editor, the legendary Nikki Giovanni, these works delve into international politics and personal histories, the clash of armies and of generations—and come from such publications as The New Yorker, Harper's, The Kenyon Review, and Callaloo. In "Ghosts," Edwidge Danticat portrays an aspiring radio talk show host in Bel Air—which some call the Baghdad of Haiti—who is brutally scapegoated, and in "Three Letters, One Song &amp; a Refrain," Chris Abani gives a searing account of the violent life of a thirteen-year-old member of a Burmese hill tribe. Jeffery Renard Allen dramatizes the mysterious arrival in Harlem of a child's hated grandmother, and Wesley Brown fictionalizes the life of the great saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, with cameo appearances by Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and other immortals. John Edgar Wideman contributes dense and textured "Microstories" that interweave everything from taboo sex acts to Richard Wright's last works to murder in a modern family. Desiree Cooper depicts a debutante from Atlanta moving to Detroit, "a city where there's no place to hide," while in "Been Meaning to Say," by Amina Gautier, a widower gets an unforgettable holiday visit from his resentful daughter. From Africa to Philadelphia, from the era of segregation to the age of Obama, the times and places, people and events in Best African American Fiction 2010 reveal inconvenient truths through incomparable fiction.

Best African American Fiction 2010

Literature & Fiction

Kennedy, Randall

United States

One World/Ballantine

"A biography of writer Ralph Ellison that describes his era, his major work--Invisible Man--his life, and the legacy of his writing"--Provided by publisher.

Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man (Writers and Their Works)

Children's Books

Biographies

Cavendish Square

Discusses racial issues in contemporary American society, with an emphasis on Black writing, art, and culture and featuring reappraisals of James Baldwin and other literary figures

Tuxedo Junction: Essays on American Culture

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Ecco Pr

Tuxedo Junction: Essays on American Culture early

Essays & Correspondence

Speech And Power Volume 1 (Dark Tower Series)

History & Criticism

"An essay must do more than say something," writes Gerald Early; "It must be something in its own right." The Culture of Bruising is Gerald Early's long-awaited sequel to his award-winning first volume of essays Tuxedo Junction and, in the same spirit, he explores not only a variety of subjects but the form of the essay itself. Early's cultural ruminations on the sport of prize-fighting form the intellectual core and central metaphor of this book. That is to say, his subject, when writing about boxing, is not just the culture of bruising or the world of the prizefighter but rather the culture as bruising - as a structure of opposition against the individual. Early's subjects range far and wide - essays in which he shares with us his considerable insights and expertise on such various subjects as multiculturalism and Black History Month, baseball, racist memorabilia, performance magic and race, Malcolm X, early jazz music, and finally, the raising of daughters. In every essay the form strengthens the content and gracefully balances the elements of research and opinion. Early becomes by turns the critic, skeptic, autobiographer, biographer, storyteller, cultural and literary scholar, detached citizen, and bemused parent. He integrates these voices with the skill of an accomplished choirmaster. The Culture of Bruising is an important and captivating collection of essays that treats issues of justice and racism in the context of sports, music, and other activities Americans value most. Early is a vigilant and highly sensitive observer of our culture, a culture based on the paradoxical combination of self-destruction and violence with personal empowerment and triumph.

The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture

The second volume of an anthology of African-American essays features works by Alice Walker, Langston Hughes, and W. E. B. Du Bois, among others, offering a definitive collection that sheds light into a culture often left out of the literary canon.

Speech And Power Volume 2 (Dark Tower Series)

Poetry

The author of Tuxedo Junction analyzes the Motown phenomenon and its effect on the relationship of blacks and whites in American culture, the media, and the business world of the sixties and early seventies.

One Nation Under a Groove: Motown and American Culture

Arts & Photography

Music

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Early, Gerald. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Early, Gerald

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Early, Gerald. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Muhammad Ali Reader

Daughters: On Family And Fatherhood

Best African American Fiction 2010

Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man (Writers and Their Works)

Tuxedo Junction: Essays on American Culture

Tuxedo Junction: Essays on American Culture

Speech And Power Volume 1 (Dark Tower Series)

The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture

Speech And Power Volume 2 (Dark Tower Series)

One Nation Under a Groove: Motown and American Culture