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My Life and Battles
African American historian Gerald Early refers to Jack Johnson (1878 1946), the first African American heavyweight champion of the world, as the first African-American pop culture icon. Johnson is a seminal and iconic figure in the history of race and sport in America. "My Life and Battles" is the translation of a memoir by Johnson that was published in French, has never before been translated, and is virtually unknown. It covers Johnson s colorful life, both inside and outside the ring, up to and including his famous defeat of Jim Jeffries in Reno, Nevada, on July 4, 1910, in one of the iconic ring battles of the early twentieth century. In addition to the fights themselves the memoir recounts, among many other things, Johnson s brief and amusing career as a local politician and provides portraits of some of the most famous boxers of the 1900 1915 era.Johnson comments explicitly on race and the color line in boxing and in American society at large in ways that he probably would not have in a publication destined for an American reading public. The text constitutes genuinely new, previously unavailable material and will be of great interest for the many readers intrigued by Jack Johnson. In addition to providing information about Johnson s life, it is a fascinating exercise in self-mythologizing that provides substantial insights into how Johnson perceived himself and wished to be perceived by others. Johnson s personal voice comes through clearly brash, clever, theatrical, and invariably charming. The memoir makes it easy to see how and why Johnson served as an important role model for Muhammad Ali and why so many have compared the two. With a foreword by Geoffrey C. Ward.
152 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 2007
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About the author
Jack Johnson
7 books3 followersAs the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion from 1908–to 1915. For more than thirteen years, Jack Johnson was the most famous and the most notorious African-American on Earth. Johnson attests that his success in boxing came from the coaching he received from Joe Choynski, who became his cellmate after the pair were arrested for fighting in Texas, where boxing was illegal at the time.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 6, 2012
If you liked the stories about black boxers inThe 50th Law, Jack Johnson's memoir is the next step. This is the lost and translated book that came out of a series of pieces Johnson wrote for a French newspaper in 1911. It's not very long but it is full of really interesting strategies and anecdotes. For example, early boxers used to hire "scientists" - essentially anatomy experts who looked at their form and told them where to do damage on the body - and this was always something poor blacks were excluded from. Johnson taught himself instead by purposely prolonging fights - sort of distancing himself from his own head and observing the fight as though he was a bystander. He tried to look at boxing like a business, putting his likes and dislikes of any situation aside, so he could be objective. It's a philosophy that hustlers seem to understand well, the concept of You, Inc, because they never had any other option. Necessity required self-employment. With Johnson though, you want to keep in mind that for all he built and achieved, he lost more. Obviously, he couldn't control the racial problems of the time but he very intentionally played with the fire that ultimately burned him. Not saying it isn't sad, it's just what happened.
February 4, 2014
With a command of language accurately described as "flowery formality" by translator Christopher Rivers, Jack Johnson presents us with ego on the level of Wilt Chamberlain and Muhammad Ali in "My Life and Battles." A "self-mythologizing" piece, this short autobiography, originally published as a series of magazine articles in France in 1911, serves up Jack Johnson as he preferred the world to know him.
I must admit to no small bit of pride in reading the wit and oratory present within these 100 or so pages. For a man apparently without access to formal education, Johnson was exceptionally well-spoken, even learning to speak decent french after effective exile from the U.S.
Hard to rate these ultra-short reads; My Life and Battles is closer to a pamphlet than a book. Even with Johnson's witty repartee, I found myself tiring of the round by round details of sooooo many matches.
On to "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson," by acclamation, the definitive biography on the champ.
I must admit to no small bit of pride in reading the wit and oratory present within these 100 or so pages. For a man apparently without access to formal education, Johnson was exceptionally well-spoken, even learning to speak decent french after effective exile from the U.S.
Hard to rate these ultra-short reads; My Life and Battles is closer to a pamphlet than a book. Even with Johnson's witty repartee, I found myself tiring of the round by round details of sooooo many matches.
On to "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson," by acclamation, the definitive biography on the champ.
October 20, 2014
This was a interesting short read. The beginning of the book is mostly about growing up in Galveston. Its got some cute stories. Once he becomes a boxer things take off. He chronicals each of his fights and how he felt about the opponent and his preparation. For me the most interesting parts are how readily Johnson takes on new challenges. His opponent moves to Australia--Jack johnson takes a steamer for Australia. He needs to go to Europe he goes to Europe. That he is a young black man from Galveston Texas, in the 1900's does not taint his optimism. It is and oddly verbose book, much more flowery than you'd expect from an uneducated (grammar school, but no further) athlete.
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September 9, 2018From “the ultimate list of books to base your life on” by Ryan Holiday on Medium
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews