The Sweet Science
by A.J. Liebling
List Price:
Our Price: $7.49
You Save: $8.51 (53%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.95 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: A.J. LieblingForeword: Robert Anasi
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-09-29
ISBN: 0374272271
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: North Point Press
Book Reviews of The Sweet Science
Book Review: Boxing as culture
Summary: 5 Stars
When asked which is the best book on boxing ever written, anyone with any inclination towards the literary side of The Manly Art will instinctively site Liebling's classic collection of essays written in the early '50s collected in this volume. On the evidence here, I cannot dispute the consensus. Liebling gives you not a history or a list of profiles of boxers but an entire world and a culture. He captures the feel of going to a boxing match in the early '50s, the crowds, the managers, the trainers and assorted characters. The best thing you can say about a piece of literature is that it places you in the action, you can physically feel that you are there and present. I have read no other book on Boxing that accurately captures this the way Liebling does in The Sweet Science. He's also an accomplished and erudite writer, a highly cultured man who brings that cultural sensitvity to something often considered, by those ignorant of these things, to be base and low-brow.
The fighters themselves - Marciano, Moore, Sadler, Robinson, Patterson, Farr - come across less as legends and more as contemporary sportsmen. It seems incredible to me that once upon a time you could just buy a ticket and stroll into the Marciano-Moore fight! For me, that fight and many others was the stuff of mythology and yet Liebling succeeds in making it real and tangible.
Final note: anyone who after reading this feels an uncontrollable lust to acquire Pierce Egan's Boxiana volumes will be enthralled to know that there is a company in Canada, Nicol Island Publishing, who have published at least three of the total of five volumes. Unfortunately, Amazon does not seem to sell any of them.
Essays Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Essays Books
Shaking a Leg: Collected Journalism and Writingsby Angela Carter
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1998-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.66
Price in other shops:
Minerva Louise (Picture Lions)by Janet Morgan Stoeke
Picture Lions; Published: 1989-09-21; Paperback; Book
White Dynamite and Curly Kiddby Bill Martin, John Archambault
Collins; Published: 1988-08; Hardcover; Book
max's christmasby rosemary wells
Dial; Published: 1986; Hardcover; Book
Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Bookby Walker Percy
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 1983-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $66.99
Shadow Lines: Educational Edition, with Critical Essays by A N Kaul, Suvir Kaul, Meenakshi Mukherjee & Rajesewari Sunder rajanby Amitav Ghosh
South Asia Books/Oxford Univ Press, India; Published: 1998-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.24
The Book of Other PeoplePenguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2008-01-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.91
Price in other shops:
Walden and Civil Disobedience (Penguin American Library)by Henry David Thoreau
Penguin Classics; Published: 1983-08-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.62
Price in other shops:
The Portable Machiavelliby Niccolo Machiavelli
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1979-01-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.35
Price in other shops:
Essays of E.B. Whiteby E. B. White
Joanna Cotler Books; Published: 1978-10-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $298.34
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Men at Work: The Craft of Baseballby George F. Will
PBS; Harper Perennial; Published: 2010-04-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.85
Price in other shops:
Just Enough Liebling: Classic Work by the Legendary New Yorker Writerby A. J. Liebling
North Point Press; Published: 2005-10-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.34
Price in other shops:
A Neutral Corner: Boxing Essaysby A. J. Liebling
North Point Press; Published: 1996-08-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.89
Price in other shops:
Ball Fourby Jim Bouton
Wiley; Published: 1990-07-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.24
Price in other shops:
Boxing's Greatest Fightersby Bert Randolph Sugar
Lyons Press; Published: 2006-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.34
Price in other shops:
Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterbackby George Plimpton
Lyons Press; Published: 2009-09-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.41
Price in other shops:
The Professionalby W.c. Heinz
Da Capo Press; Published: 2001-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.48
Price in other shops:
The Fightby Norman Mailer
Vintage; Published: 1997-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.67
Price in other shops:
At The Fights: American Writers on BoxingLibrary of America; Published: 2011-03-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.99
Price in other shops:
The Greatest Boxing Stories Ever Told: Thirty-Six Incredible Tales from the RingLyons Press; Published: 2004-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.14
Price in other shops: