No Man Stands Alone: The True Story of Barney Ross

by Barney Ross, Martin Abramson, Eddie Cantor (Foreword)

Dust jacket has large chip out of spine head, also chipped at heel. Creased, with wear at edges. Chipped at tips. jacket spine a little color faded. Round sticker pull on front endpaper. Edges of text block a little yellowed, as are endpapers.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1957

Reviews

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading this as an adolescent and liking it very much. Instead of the usual hagiography common with sports books, this was a book of a boxing champion who fell in his personal life, addicted to heroin before those sorts of things were talked about, especially in sports heroes. There is also a personal angle in that Barney Ross was a Jewish boxing champion when the poorer neighborhoods still had boxers from all races, religions, etc, because there was such a diverse number of recent European immigrants, all struggling from poverty, that boxing was truly integrated. (An interesting historical fact: when young, he was running in the neighborhood with other Jewish hoodlums, including one named Jack Ruby, who later shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Barney Ross remained loyal to his old friend and testified as a character witness at the trial.) The second is that I received medical care from my father's union, the union had a gym where boxers trained and running that gym was Sandy Sadler, Willy Pep's great "nemesis" with whom he fought a series of memorable fights. (This was in a time when great boxers faced off various times over the years, not like now when they spend more time talking than fighting, let alone having a series of rematches.) My Dad pointed him out but I was too young then to know and appreciate who Sandy Sadler was. But now I do...

[Kenneth Bernstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great autobiography about boxing and overcoming drug addiction.