King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero

315 Pages·1999·2.97 MB·English

by  David Remnick

Acclaim for David Remnick’s
KING OF THE WORLD
“Remnick brings to his reading of the Ali scriptures a helpful sense of
recent boxing history, inseparable from political history.… It doesn’t
read like the case history of the man (though the man is here in living
colors, sometimes funny as hell), but of a comic and cosmic superman.”
—Budd Schulberg, The New York Times Book Review
“It may prove to be a classic.… Beautifully reported, compelling.”
—New York Daily News
“Of the many books about Ali, [this] seems the closest
to … illuminat[ing] the complexities of the man.”
—The Washington Post Book World
“Deftly told … a clear, well-written portrait.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Remnick shines a brilliant light on the myth and the man.”
—Elle
“An engrossing and important book.… The fight scenes are absolutely
riveting—written with an excitement and an immediacy that only
someone who loves his subject can consistently pull off.”
—National Review
David Remnick
David Remnick was a reporter for The Washington Post for ten years,
including four in Moscow. He joined The New Yorker as a writer in 1992
and has been the magazine’s editor since 1998.
Books by David Remnick
Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire
The Devil Problem and Other True Stories
Resurrection: The Struggle for a New Russia
King of the World

FIRST VINTAGE EBOOKS EDITION, OCTOBER 1999
Copyright © 1998 by David Remnick
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House
LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random
House companies. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Random House LLC,
New York, in 1998.
Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published
material: James Baldwin Estate: Excerpt from “The Fight: Patterson vs. Liston” by James Baldwin,
originally published in Nugget. Copyright © 1963 by James Baldwin. Copyright renewed.
Reprinted by arrangement with the James Baldwin Estate. / Playboy: Excerpt from “The Playboy
Interview: Cassius Clay” (October 1964). Copyright © 1964 by Playboy; excerpt from “The
Playboy Interview: Muhammad Ali” (November 1975). Copyright © 1975 by Playboy.
Reproduced by special permission of Playboy magazine. / Simon and Schuster: Excerpts From
Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times by Thomas Hauser. Copyright © 1991 by Thomas Hauser and
Muhammad Ali. Reprinted by permission of Simon and Schuster. / Gay Talese: Excerpt From
“The Loser” by Gay Talese. Originally published in Esquire magazine. Copyright © 1962 by Gay
Talese. Excerpt from “In Defense of Cassius Clay” by Gay Talese. Originally published in Esquire
magazine. Copyright © 1966 by Gay Talese. All excerpts reprinted by permission of the author. /
The Wylie Agency: Excerpt from “Ten Thousand Words a Minute” by Norman Mailer. Copyright ©
1963 by Norman Mailer, first printed in Esquire magazine. Reprinted with the permission of The
Wylie Agency.
eBook ISBN: 978-0-80417362-9
Frontispiece photograph by Howard L. Bingham
www.vintagebooks.com
Cover design by John Gall
Cover image © Chris Smith/Getty Images v3.1
For my brother, Richard,
and for my friend Eric Lewis
CONTENTS
Cover
About the Author
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue: In Michigan
PART ONE
ONE Underground Man
TWO Two Minutes, Six Seconds
THREE Mr. Fury and Mr. Gray
FOUR Stripped
PART TWO
FIVE The Bicycle Thief
SIX Twentieth-Century Exuberance
SEVEN Secrets
EIGHT Hype
PART THREE
NINE The Cross and the Crescent
TEN Bear Hunting
ELEVEN “Eat Your Words!”
TWELVE The Changeling
PART FOUR
THIRTEEN “Save Me, Joe Louis …”
FOURTEEN Gunfire
FIFTEEN The Anchor Punch
SIXTEEN What’s in a Name?
Epilogue: Old Men by the Fire