Book Description
"Touching and courageous...All of it--the man, the life, the book--is rare and beautiful."
COSMOPOLITAN
DAYS OF GRACE is an inspiring memoir of a remarkable man who was the true embodiment of courage, elegance, and the spirit to fight: Arthur Ashe--tennis champion, social activist, and person with AIDS. Frank, revealing, touching--DAYS OF GRACE is the story of a man felled to soon. It remains as his legacy to us all....
AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB
Customer Reviews:
enduring Grace..........2007-08-03
An athlete who epitomized grace. He had style, compassion, 3 Grand Slam Titles and a place in the Tennis Hall of Fame. The only African-American ever to win at Wimbledom and the first African-American to win a Grand Slam Title. Arthur won the inaugural US Open in 1968. Arthur's legacy as a social activist is perhaps even more important to this legacy, his steadfast beliefs in doing what was right for those who could not so for themselves, in his standing up to apartheid in South Africa after being denied a visa in 1968 to play in the South African Open because he was black. In 1988 Arthur discovered he was HIV+ after undergoing heart surgery and receiving a blood transfusion. Arthur died of complications from AIDS in Feb of 1993 but not before calling world-wide attention to the sufferers of AIDS and the indignities suffered by them. In this day and age of black athletes more worried about their 'street cred' then being a positive role model this is one of the most memorable autobiographies I've ever read.
Readable, Thoughtful, Moving.......2007-04-17
Arthur Ashe (1943-1993) wrote this book in his final year of life, after his battle against AIDS had been made public by the media against his wishes. This book is a remarkable combination of autobiography, tennis narrative, and philosophical/political statement from the author as he faced death with courage, class, and grace. Ashe describes his upbringing in Richmond Virginia during the latter days of segregation, his career in professional tennis, and his premature heart problems that apparently led to his contracting HIV from a blood transfusion. Ashe also offers insights and opinions on tennis players like John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, Black-Jewish relations, civil rights, the nation's political culture in the early 1990's, and of course, the tragic disease that was to fell him and so many others.
Ashe demonstrated intelligence, dignity and compassion, and tragically died before the new retro-viral drugs arrived to spare (but not cure) many victims. Ashe was a class act, and his book is a lasting and valuable testament.
Worthwhile.......2006-03-09
Arthur had some interesting observations & insight. This man had more physical problems than one can imagine but was able to stay upbeat through it all.
It is worthwhile reading for anyone who has an interest in Arthur & or his career.
Dying Concentrates The Mind Onto What Is Truly Important Among Life's Distractions.......2005-09-11
Ashe co-wrote Days of Grace during the final months of his life, as this mighty athlete and human rights activist was dying of AIDS contracted from a blood transfusion following life-saving surgery. Everything in this autobiography confirms the reputation Ashe secured over his lifetime, of being a kind, modest, higher-goal-oriented human being. This is not only the story of HIS life, but of the progress those of his race have made in the world of sports and the arena of life. Ashe describes his childhood in segregated Richmond, Virginia, where his father was the groundskeeper of a "Negroes Only" park that included tennis courts. It was in this unlikely location that Ashe perfected his game to such a level he was able to play professionally among others (nearly all of whom were whites) whose training had included expensive athletic camps and decades of personalized coaching. The high point of this story comes in 1975, the year the underdog Ashe dominated the world's number one men's tennis player, the volatile Jimmy Conners, and became the first non-white to win the Gentleman's Singles Title at Wimbledon.
If Ashe's life was full of moments that shone in history--Wimbledon, being the frist black to play professional tennis in Apartheid-era South Africa, first black coach of the US Davis Cup team--then it was also a series of sad tragedies. In the prime of his life, a man in extraordinary physical shape, Ashe suffered the first in a series of congenitally-attributable heart attacks, that lead to open heart surgery, a blood transfusion, and in the ultimate sadness, to his infection with the HIV that lead to AIDS and his untimely death.
Ashe's intelligence, determination, his compassion and his dignity radiate from the pages of this memoir of what must be viewed as an unfinished life. It movingly concludes with a chapter in which Ashe writes an open letter to his daughter Camera, then about seven years of age. Ashe expresses his hopes for her and offers advice from his heart for this daughter he knows he will not be there to raise.
This is a very good book but it is at all times a roller coaster of emotional ups and downs. Ashe was a true champion and American society is honestly diminished by his absence from our ranks.
Like gold tested by fire.......2004-11-27
Although I never met Arthur Ashe in person, what a great resource he leaves us with this autobiography. Arthur was a man of faith, morals, business, intellect and manners. Oh yeah, he was also one heckuva tennis player. My personal enduring memory of Arthur came not in the form of his Wimbledon upset of Jimmy Connors, but rather by a subsequent televised loss some years later to John McEnroe. It would be a complete understatement to say that McEnroe carried on like <l'enfant terrible>. Arthur suffered through Mac's innumerable hissy fits in that match with the perturbed patience of a monastic saint enduring the constant wails of an infidel. It is hard to adequately describe Ashe's remarkable countenance that night, except to say it was the most powerful display of silence I have ever witnessed in sport. So, it came as quite a surprise to learn in this book how much admiration and respect Arthur had for John, and how much John devoted to the Davis Cup matches. If your athletic son or daughter hopes to avoid learning too late in life that there is a lot more to it than sports and glory, I implore you to force them to read Days of Grace.
Customer Reviews:
Breaking the Silence.......2006-11-07
On the surface, Nancy Draper's story of her mother's battle with AIDS is a story about facing death from a dreadful disease. But looking deeper A Burden of Silence is really a story about choosing to live with compassion and empathy for others.
In a world where many live daily with fear as a companion - fear of pain, fear of what others will think, fear that they will be the recipient of prejudice - this story shows us that we can choose to live with hope, that even though we are just one person we can make a difference. Nancy has given voice to her mother who thought her only choice was silence.
The book is a loving memorial and a celebration of a life.
A Well-kept Secret.......2006-07-26
Nancy Draper, author of A Burden of Silence, held an audience enthralled at a recent Maine library program as she spoke about her mother's battle with AIDS. Everyone there purchased a copy of her book.
Her first person narrative conveys an intimacy between the reader and the author. It is heart wrenching when Nancy relates how her mother was infected with HIV through a blood transfusion during heart surgery. People usually think that if they have protected sex, this could not happen to them, but Nancy points out that it can happen to anyone. Her mother was an innocent victim who felt a deep shame for having a "dirty" disease. This book explains how a seemingly ordinary family handled this tragedy.
Imagine how hard it must to keep such a secret, when one has every right expect support from outsiders. Think how degrading it is to an elderly woman when her own doctor would not touch her, but made his nurse take blood. This sense of despair is what the author communicates to anyone wise enough to pick up a copy of her book and read it.
The author valiantly attempts to control her emotions, to give an unbiased account of how her family coped. Nancy's mother spent the first five years after her surgery not knowing why she always felt sick. When she was finally given the blood test that determined that the blood bank gave her HIV infected blood, she was devastated. She lived a short three years after the diagnosis.
The decision was made to keep it quiet. Nancy's mother felt that most people would not understand, and perhaps she was correct. Society tends to judge people without all the facts.
Near the end of her mother's life, Nancy and her father applied for hospice care, which turned out to be a blessing. Wintering in Florida, they would have been alone without hospice. Hospice made the last days easier to bear for this brave woman who had so much thrown her way.
Not only has Nancy Draper written remarkable narrative of coping, but she comes from a cohesive family unit. Her husband, present at the program I attended, exuded incredible support, which must make living with this tragedy a bit easier, as her own health suffered during this ordeal. Today her travels take her throughout the country in her work to reinforce AIDS awareness.
This book educates people to a greater AIDS awareness than any professional lecture could accomplish. As Nancy states, AIDS is not a dirty word, and through her participation in the AIDS memorial quilt, perhaps more people will come to realize the wisdom of her words. This book is a must for everyone.
A Loving Tribute.......2006-05-31
"A Burden of Silence: My Mother's Battle with AIDS," is a gripping and tender account of a daughter's love for her dying mother due to a tainted blood transfusion. In this heartwarming book dealing with a nightmarish subject, Nancy succeeds in revealing her story with courage, compassion, humor, and unwavering love. Through this story, Nancy hopes to erase some of the stigma surrounding AIDS. Nancy explains the importance of keeping her mother's memory alive through the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. I highly recommend this book.
Richard H Frishman "Rick Frishman"
www.plannedtvarts.com
www.author101.com
How a Transfusion Changed a Mother's Life.......2006-05-24
"I want you to write about me having AIDS because I don't want anyone else to suffer in silence like we have." ~Nancy's Mom
When Nancy A. Draper's mother underwent a bypass surgery, she received a transfusion that turned out to be HIV contaminated blood. At the age of 66 she was diagnosed with AIDS and battled with her illness until she was 69. Before Nancy's mother died, she asked her to write a book so that others would not have to suffer in silence. Through "A Burden of Silence" Nancy gives her mother a voice and writes with the care and concern of a loving daughter.
"Hundreds of thousands of people like my mother who went into the hospital trusted doctors who assured patients that the blood was safe. So many lives were lost because of a lag in testing by blood banks throughout the United States." ~ pg. 139
This book is not only about Nancy's mom's illness, but also about the choices she made while living, like taking a painting class. In order to deal with her diagnosis, she relied on a variety of useful tools like guided meditation and breathing exercises. Realistic conversations and family issues keep this book engaging and heartwarming.
Even in a time of extreme stress for a family dealing with AIDS they find time to connect and care for each other. Through the sadness of the diagnosis, we learn about the realities of caring for an AIDS patient and the struggles are at times recorded in a realistic diary style that takes the reader on a journey from diagnosis to the sad yet somewhat poignant moments of goodbye. In the end, this sad story is a beautiful gift to the world and will be especially appreciated by anyone in a similar situation or by anyone who wants to develop more compassion and understanding.
~The Rebecca Review
An incredibly sad story, a lesson about our health care system.......2006-04-01
Nancy Draper had to face one of the saddest things ever to happen; her dear mother was infected with AIDS through contaminated blood in a transfusion. This accidental infection led to a long and painful illness, but what was even more painful for the Drapers was the way in which her mother's illness was ultimately handled. Interestingly, well-known author Isaac Asimov also received a contaminated transfusion and it was years until his widow published a book about his last days. Some of his story is similar to Nancy Draper's experience with her mother.
The confusion of the 80's about the AIDS epidemic have repercussions even up to today. Back in that decade, GRIDS (gay-related immune disorder) was known in the medical community, but the threat to the public was not dealt with in a reasonable manner (was it stigmatized because an unpopular segment of the population had the disease? See "And the Band Played On.") Then the stigmatization of the disease preceded public health policy, and the lessons that had been learned in the 1900's about tuberculosis were apparently forgotten. (TB was also stigmatized and people were shunned with the disease until public policy established laws and santatoria to treat the ill and protect the public.) Meanwhile, people were becoming ill and dying. Nancy's mother faced the untruths, the stigmatization and the marginalization of her treatment.
Draper describes the family search for holistic care, for hospice help and how her mother's illness affected the family. In some ways, this information is helpful to anyone with a family member who has a terminal illness and is seeking the best and most appropriate care for their loved one.
As a personal history/biography of someone with AIDS, this is interesting reading. As a story of the deficiencies in our public health system, it's enlightening reading. It's not an easy book to read, but an important one.
Book Description
This account of a tennis match played by Arthur Ashe against Clark Graebner at Forest Hills in 1968 begins with the ball rising into the air for the initial serve and ends with the final point. McPhee provides a brilliant, stroke-by-stroke description while examining the backgrounds and attitudes which have molded the players' games.
Customer Reviews:
Lovely, well-crafted, McPheesque.......2006-03-30
Anyone who has written will appreciate this book, and how McPhee tells two stories-the forestory and the back story-and keeps both moving along nicely. This is among several McPhee books that are worth looking at closely, for anyone who loves to write-or loves to read.
a real pinnacle in Sports writing.......2001-02-01
Ostensibly this book is about a tennis match, Arthur Ashe versus Clark Graebner in the 1968 US Open Semifinals. The match was historic in itself:
"It has been thirteen years since an American won the men's-singles final at Forest Hills, and this match will determine whether Ashe or Graebner is to have a chance to be the first American since Tony Trabert to win it all. Ashe and Graebner are still amateurs, and it was imagined that in this tournament, playing against professionals, they wouldn't have much of a chance. But they are here, close to the finish, playing each other. For Graebner to look across a net and see Ashe--and the reverse--is not in itself unusual. They were both born in 1943, they have known each other since they were thirteen, and they have played tournaments and exhibitions and have practiced together in so many countries and seasons that details blur."
But McPhee is actually after bigger game than this one match. He also provides insightful portraits of the two very different contestants. Ashe, the only championship level Black tennis player of his time, is single, liberal, mercurial, a finesse player and a risk taker. Graebner is married with kids, conservative, religious, a power player and risk averse. McPhee demonstrates how their personalities influence, indeed shape, their play and how their lifelong rivalry lifts their games to higher levels when they play one another, ultimately lifting Ashe's game towards perfection by the end of this contest.
Ashe would go on to win the tournament, becoming the only amateur to win it in the Open era and together Ashe and Graebner lead the US to it's first Davis Cup in years. After that though, while Ashe went on to a respectable career, Graebner slipped into obscurity. But in this book, McPhee has preserved a moment in time when the two were evenly matched on the court, despite being polar opposites off of the court and in charting the lives that brought them to that moment, he provides a penetrating glance at two fascinating men.
This is a real pinnacle in Sports writing.
GRADE: A
A Level All Its Own.......2000-11-01
To say John McPhee has written the best tennis book ever is to say too little. This is far more than a tennis book and, if you're looking for instruction, far less. The platform, if you'll excuse the tennis pun, is a U.S. Open final between Clark Graebner and Arthur Ashe, but it is a study of two men and what brought them to this point, athletically but especially sociologically. The reflective Southerner forced to be a pioneer because he is black. The more rigid son of the Midwest and privilege, with greater power and less versatility. The vagaries that make them human: Graebner, the more up-tight, gambling with a prepared point successfully at a crucial spot in the match. And at the end, there is Ashe, triumphantly whistling a winner off his suspect backhand to close out the match. You want to cheer. And you understand more about people than when you opened the book.
About the people.......2000-03-13
This was my first John McPhee book, selected because of its subject matter (I'm an ex-serious tennis player). John McPhee was recommended to me as a writer/essayist who can take any subject and write about it intelligently and interestingly. After finishing this book, I would agree with that characterization, but clarify that the subject in this particular book is not professional tennis or even the game of tennis but rather two people and how they have managed their lives. That they play tennis is the point around which the book comes together, but it is not the point on which the book stands. If you're looking for insight into the game of junior/professional tennis, try David Foster Wallace's great essay about Michael Joyce in _A Supposedly Fun Thing..._. If you're looking for insight into two particularly interesting people--Arthur Ashe is one of them, but his compatriot and opponent, whose name, of course, I have forgotten, is worth equal time--in a particularly interesting time period and situation, check this book out.
Lovely, graceful book.......1999-07-07
This book is so gracefully written that it isn't till the end that one realizes that McPhee's writing style(s) has been imitating the players' tennis styles, and that his language has moved effortlessly intune with the 'Levels of the Game'. Inlight of Arthur ashe's death, the book acheives a new poignancy.
Book Description
Myths, legends, and literary mysteries mix with maps, relics, and historical facts in The Discovery of King Arthur. Scholars, students, and general readers of all ages have wondered-for centuries-about whether Britain was ever really ruled by an Arthur who held court at a place called Camelot. In this book, the distinguished scholar Geoffrey Ashe offers convincing proof that King Arthur not only existed, but was more like the Arthur of legend than historians have previously suspected.In this exciting study, drawing upon myriad sources both literary and historical, Ashe traces the legend of King Arthur to its roots in the twelfth-century chronicles of Geoffrey of Monmouth. He then illustrates that a great deal of Geoffrey's history, which set out ot depict events and persons of fifth-century Britain, was based on fact. After challenging previous assumptions about where Arthur's court and other remnants can be found, Ashe identifies the real King Arthur and provides powerful evidence to support his theory.Riothamus, an actual fifth-century British monarch, is the figure whom Ashe painstakingly identifies. But his study also investigates the histories behind other Arthurian phenomena, such as the key concepts of knighthood and chivalry. Throughout the book, the swep and grandeur of a tumultuous era in British and European history is vividly recounted as Ashe describes the origins and development of the Arthurian legend-a legend that seems to grow ever more enchanting and spellbinding.
Customer Reviews:
Non Fiction.......2007-09-03
I suppose you could call this historical forensics. Geoffrey Ashe attempts to sift through all the legends and fiction surrounding King Arthur to see if he can pin down who the actual man might have been and when he might actually have lived and where. Apparently Ashe is a well known Arthurian scholar, and the books reads that way.
Historical Quest.......2007-02-14
Ashe makes a compelling argument for the existence of a REAL King Arthur and has identified the landscape in which he operated. This book is very hard to put down -- I read it in one day, stirring my soup with one hand while holding the book in the other! I found myself reading it with my Ordinance Survey map opened to the appropriate places, and found it very helpful and convincing.
VERY highly recommended.
selling myth.......2005-07-01
Ashe as usual hasn't the faintest idea of his histories. He simply perpetuates the myths which make his income. He clearly has no interest whatsoever in the factual historicity of the person who has come down to us as King Arthur, nor has any academic background to support the work which he does. Ancient manuscripts in, for example, the Harleian, the Bodleian, LLandaff Cathedral, the Vatican Manuscripts, the correspondences in the Louvre, and thousands more, delineate a clear and factual history for not just one, but two clear and distinct Kings called, in English, Arthur. Their zones of influence are clear, as is the fact that their seat of power was in South Wales. Only a pretentious untutored moron would place King Arthur in Glastonbury - or Tintagel! Camelot, - the french for 'rubbish' is Caer Melyn, Kerniw is the forest (Coed) of Kerniw, known as such for more than two thousand years, and the stone (llys) court (faen) near to which Arthur the Second had his seat is Llys Faen. Curiously, Llys Faen, Caer Melyn and Coed Kerniw are all between Cardiff and Newport. Ashe has his own agenda, which has nothing to do with the real King Arthur, and which is highly destructive for all genuine researchers.
The Real Arthur Steps Out of The Dark Ages.......2005-03-15
Geoffrey Ashe's book provides a much needed clarification of the romanticized Arthurian myth as it's known today. In a cautious and scientific method, Ashe sifts through Medieval annals and stories to find common links as well as inconsistencies to uncover the probable truth behind the myth. The book is approachable by all readers regardless of their historical knowledge and is written in a simple prose.
Writers and minstrels of Medieval Europe had little interest in historical truth as we do today and usually sought to impress their monarchs and nobles with fancy stories about the great origins of their titles instead. Sir Thomas Malory's 'Le Morte D'Arthure' was no exception and, his version is even more suspect in that he wrote it hoping to please the king enough to get him out of prison. Although these early ballads and chronicles obscure more than clarify the true origins of the myths, they do recite certain common and recurrent facts or themes pointing to events during a specific historical period that can reveal glimpses of the truth that lies beneath.
With strong evidence and use of logic, Ash comes to certain tentative conclusions about the real Arthur. First, Ash goes to the earliest known chronicles which place Arthur at a much earlier date than later writers. Accounting for some identifiable errors in dates, Ash concludes that Arthur couldn't have lived past the 5th century A.D. which would place him in the final years of Roman Britain. Ash correctly recognizes that the name Arturios is a Latin name of which a Germanic Angle, Jute, or Saxon monarch would not have had. He also finds that the legends of Merlin and the Green Knight indicate a strong Celtic influence of druidism which would coincide with that period as Christianity was just beginning to propagate through England and Ireland with evangelists such as St. Patrick: a good portion of Britain and Ireland were still very much Celtic and pagan. Ash also found that the name Arturios sounds a lot like a Romano-Celtic war chieftain named Riothamus who existed approximately during the same period. Finally, Ash also suggests that the initial success of the Romano-Celts in repelling the invaders came hand in hand with some territorial expansions into northern Gaul in modern Britanny which would account for the myth of Lancelot. Gaul was of course also a Roman province that was suffering even more severe invasions at the hands of the Franks, Vandals, and other Germanic invaders during that time. He speculates that the mythical Arthurian prosperity of Camelot simply reflected these initial geo-political and economic successes. Ash also supports his theory with archeological finds dated to that period and etymological extrapolation form names and words.
Stories like the Arthur myths and the Song of Roland tended to be a Medieval minstrel's fancy account of obscure histories to please his audience of nobles and monarchs and were devoid of any factual truth: making these stories myths instead of history. Ash lifts the veil of these myths and points to the kernels of truth he did find leaving a final conclusion for future historians who dare to take the challenge. The book is easy to read and one doesn't require a high knowledge of history to understand his argument. Overall a great book with a lot of good information not only about the Arthurian myth, but also about a period of European history that doesn't offer a lot of information, hence appropriately referred to as the Dark Ages.
Everything but the 'legend" of King Arthur.......2004-05-12
One of the greatest English myths is of King Arthur, Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table; the legend says if England is in dire trouble, Arthur and his knights will ride once again to their rescue.
Unfortunately, this book mostly ignores the legend and limits itself to bare facts. Without giving away the plot, the book concludes that either Arthur really existed even if no one is sure of what all he accomplished, or else someone with the same name did it all. In other words, it's good investigative history with a poor understanding of King Arthur.
Although it may not be apparent to an Englishman, King Arthur embodies the finest of the English spirit and attitudes. He was a great warrior who successfully defended his land against almost impossible odds (to be specific, the Saxon invaders from Germany). He was the architect of English fair play, justice, equality and democracy -- why else have a "round table" at which all are equal?
It was the Normans who imposed an absolute monarchy; the English, in the Magna Carta, told them that no one in England has the right of absolute rule. The legend warns of the perfidious French in the person of Lancelot, who seduces the Queen. In today's England, the legend of King Arthur says "this is who we would like to be."
Ashe provides a cornucopia of facts about the possibilities or likelihood of the real King Arthur, including a tantalizing suggestion the origins of the legend may date back to the beginnings of Stonehenge some 4,000 years ago. Granted, this may be a latter day addition to the legend, in effect claiming "we've always been like this." Or, it may indicate the stubborn English individuality may date much further back than anyone suspects.
It's a pity Ashe didn't examine the legend and it's modern meanings -- even in the recent American form with Richard Burton in Camelot -- and how this grew out of the facts he has compiled. The legends of Beowulf, der Ring des Nibelungen, Gitchee Manitou, the Good Soldier Schweik and others tell a lot about people. Someday, in a far distant time and place, "legends" of Battle of Britain pilots may merge with Camelot; think of Squadron Leader Arthur, his Spitfire knights gathering around a table in some pub after battling the Saxons.
Impossible? In America, legendary stories of George Washington began to arise within a few decades of his death. Today, true believers swear by such stories. Such modern legends express the best of America. It's what legends mean.
History is more than facts -- it is also meaning.
This book is a rich trove of facts, well worth reading. Whatever one thinks of King Arthur, this book provides a solid foundation for further analysis. I'd have preferred more, in the line of "here's what the legend means." Even limited as it is, it's well worth reading.
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Arthur Ashe: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)
Richard Steins
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
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Days of Grace
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The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
ASIN: 0313332991 |
Book Description
Born in the segregated South in 1943, Ashe overcame racial prejudices and segregation to break into the world of tennis, which had traditionally been dominated by whites. He rose to the top of the sport, winning three Grand Slam trophies and playing on the Davis Cup team. His tennis career came to an abrupt end when he suffered a heart attack while in his thirties. Ashe began a post-tennis career that included speaking out on social issues that mattered most to him, including educational excellence for African American athletes, the injustice of the apartheid system in South Africa, and better health care for all Americans. After contracting the AIDS virus through a blood transfusion, he began to speak out on the subject of AIDS in order to help people understand the disease. After a brilliant career on the tennis court, Ashe devoted the remainder of his life to fighting for social justice at home and abroad and to fighting the illnesses that had struck him while he was still a young man. Steins tells the inspiring story of Arthur Ashe, a great tennis champion whose skills on the court as well as his exceptional and honorable personal characteristics made him stand out among all players of his generation. A timeline and other appendices highlight Ashe's career and life.
Book Description
The story of the African-American athlete in basketball is one of omission to domination -- at least on the court. Ashe traces this development from the club players of the 1920s to the colleges -- including the achievements of athletes in the traditional black colleges -- and on the professional basketball players of today. The text and reference materials for this book were taken from the three-volume set,A Hard Road to Glory,and combined into this single volume.
Customer Reviews:
INFORMATIVE .......2006-01-15
The book is a historical sketch, informative and useful. A good introduction to the subject matter.
sadly, a shoddy work.......2005-07-27
Arthur Ashe made many fine contributions to America, but this isn't one of them. Not up to the standard set by the other books in the series.
Book Description
Featuring introductions by Billie Jean King, Lori McNeil, John McPhee, and George Vecsey, this collection of invaluable instructional advice and tennis wisdom from the late Arthur Ashe is infused with the finest insights of a great man and a great tennis mind.
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Arthur Ashe on Tennis
Arthur Ashe
Manufacturer: Random House Value Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0517179563
Release Date: 1997-05-20 |
Book Description
Childhood of Famous Americans
One of the most popular series ever published for young Americans, these classics have been praised alike by parents, teachers, and librarians. With these lively, inspiring, fictionalized biographies -- easily read by children of eight and up -- today's youngster is swept right into history.
Books:
- Depression: A Stubborn Darkness--Light for the Path (VantagePoint Books)
- Douglas A-1 Skyraider: A Photo Chronicle
- Dying While Black
- Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--and What We Can Do About It
- Fear No Evil: A Novel
- Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia (Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture)
- Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman
- Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America
- George Washington Carver: The Man Who Overcame
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
Books Index
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