Christopher Klein

Strong Boy: the Life and Times of John L. Sullivan, America S First Sports Hero Christopher Klein

Publisher Marketing: I can lick any son-of-a-bitch in the world. So boasted John L. Sullivan, the first modern heavyweight boxing champion of the world, a man who was the gold standard of American sports for more than a decade and the first athlete to earn more than a million dollars. He had a big ego, a big mouth, and even bigger appetites. His womanizing, drunken escapades, and chronic police-blotter presence were godsends to a burgeoning newspaper industry. The larger-than-life boxer embodied the American dream for late nineteenth-century immigrants as he rose from Boston s Irish working class to become the most recognizable man in the nation. In the process, the Boston Strong Boy transformed boxing from outlawed bare-knuckle fighting into the gloved spectacle we know today."Strong Boy" tells the story of America s first sports superstar, a self-made man who personified the power and excesses of the Gilded Age. Everywhere John L. Sullivan went, his fists backed up his bravado. Sullivan s epic brawls, such as his seventy-five-round bout against Jake Kilrain, and his cross-country barnstorming tour in which he literally challenged all of America to a fight are recounted in vivid detail, as are his battles outside the ring with a troubled marriage, wild weight and fitness fluctuations, and raging alcoholism. "Strong Boy" gives readers ringside seats to the colorful tale of one of the country s first Irish American heroes and the birth of the American sports media and the country s celebrity obsession with athletes." Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 09/30/2013 (EAN 9780762781522, Hardcover) Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2013 (EAN 9780762781522, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Klein, Christopher Christopher Klein is an author and a history and travel writer. A frequent contributor to the "Boston Globe" and History.com, he has also written for the "New York Times", "Harvard "magazine, ESPN.com, Smithsonian.com, AmericanHeritage.com, and "National Geographic Traveler".