The Sweet Science

A. J. Liebling's classic New Yorker pieces on the "sweet science of bruising" bring vividly to life the boxing world as it once was. The Sweet Science depicts the great events of boxing's American heyday: Sugar Ray Robinson's dramatic comeback, Rocky Marciano's rise to prominence, Joe Louis's tragic decline. Liebling never fails to find the human story behind the fight, and he always evokes the atmosphere in the arena as distinctly as he does the goings-on in the ring—a combination that prompted Sports Illustrated to name The Sweet Science the best American sports book of all time.

As the noted boxing writer Robert Anasi remarks in his foreword to this book, "Liebling doesn't make the ring over into the setting for a morality play or an alternate site for Armageddon. His own boxing experience allowed him to represent the sport as sport, and to see boxing the way the pros do: as a job, more difficult than most, but also more rewarding."

Praise

"In The Sweet Science—in all his books—Liebling himself, the voice and the character, is immensely appealing."—David Remnick, The New Yorker

"Nobody wrote about boxing with more grace and enthusiasm than Joe Liebling."—Red Smith, The New York Times

About the Author(s)

A. J. Liebling

A. J. Liebling, born October 18, 1904, joined the staff of The New Yorker in 1935 and contributed innumerable articles to the magazine before his death in 1963. His greatest work is collected in Just Enough Liebling.

Find A. J. Liebling on Goodreads

Visit A. J. Liebling's Wikipedia page

Table of Contents

Foreword by Robert Anasi

Introduction

The Bog Fellows
Boxing with the Naked Eye
Broken Fighter Arrives

The Melting Middleweight
Sugar Ray and the Milling Cove
Kearns by a Knockout

The Big Fellows Again
New Champ
Long Toddle, Short Fight
Charles I
Charles II

Other Formats
The Boy from South Main Street
Nino and a Nanimal
Soirée Intime
The Neutral Corner Art Group
Debut of a Seasoned Artist
Wunderkind
Great-and-a-Half Champion
Next-to-Last Stand, Maybe
Donnybrook Farr

Ahab and Nemesis
Ahab and Nemesis