The Hurt Business: A Century of the Greatest Writing on Boxing

by George Kimball (Editor)

From Jack London to Joyce Carol Oates, The Hurt Business is the ultimate boxing book covering a century of the greatest fighter and the writers who have followed 'the sweet science'. Beginning with Jack London's account of the 1910 championship bout between Jack Johnson and James Jeffries (for which the Call of the Wildman called for and coined the term "The Great White Hope"), and ending with Carlo Rotella's 2002 homage to Larry Holmes ("Champion at Twilight"), The Hurt Business is a near century's worth of rip-roaring reveal. Some of it comes ringside, like Norman Mailer et; some of it comes from the gym, like Pete Hamill's "Up the Stairs with Cus D'Amato"; and some of it comes from so far behind the scenes you feel as if you've been eavesdropping - Thomas Hauser's excerpt from The Black Lights.

For fans of Norman Mailer's The Fight or George Kimball's Four Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing, The Hurt Business belongs on the shelves of any fan of boxing or sublime sports writing.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

518 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2013

About the author

The 1986 recipient of the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism, George Kimball spent a quarter-century as a sports columnist for the Boston Herald before retiring in 2005. A veteran of nearly title bouts, Kimball has covered boxing all over the world since the eras of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, and was the only journalist to cover every fight of Marvelous Marvin Hagler's middleweight reign from start to finish. For the past decade he has written a weekly 'America at Large' column for The Irish Times. Kimball has received numerous awards for his Boxing, Golf, Baseball, and Olympic coverage, and in retirement, in addition to his Irish Times column, he keeps his hand in the game as a featured columnist for ESPN.com and for the monthly publication Boxing Digest.

“FOUR KINGS: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing” was published, to widespread acclaim, by Mainstrean Press in the United Kingdom and by McBooks Press in the United States, and immediately became the best-selling boxing book in both countries.

He is also the author of “American at Large,” a collection of his Irish Times columns, and the co-author, with Eamonn Coghlan, of “Chairman of the Boards,” both published by Dublin’s Red Rock Press, and has traveled frequently to Ireland for the past four decades.

He has two children, Darcy (1984) and Teddy (1988). When he and his wife, Dr. Marge Marash Kimball, were married in 2004, the ceremony was performed by the Reverend George Foreman. The couple lives on the Upper West Side.

Reviews

[Steve Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love boxing, boxing writing and boxing history, then it doesn't get much better than this.

[David Gagen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb collection of essays and writings on boxing. Brilliant.

[Brendan Bradford · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read deep dive through the history of boxing and boxing writing.

[Jonathan Mccombie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book, brings an intellectual strand to a sport often misunderstood by most.

[Sunny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an excellent read. A collection of reports about some of the most famous fights in history. Very insightful if u are interested in the nuances of boxing with some excellent hints and tips. It covered the fights of people like Johnson. Dempsey. Louis. Carnera. Marciano. Archie Moore. Patterson. Liston. Ali. Duran. Leonard. Mancini. Frazier. Foreman. De la Hoya and of course iron mike Tyson. Certainly worth a read.