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Shaw's Champions: The Noble Art from Cashel Byron to Gene Tunney
Shaw's G.B.S. and Prizefighting from Cashel Byron to Gene Tunney
224 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1978
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January 21, 2021
There is a narrative thread that runs through the history of society, and that is of the brutish man who makes civilization possible for the civilized man, who, in turn, replaces the brutish man for whom society no longer has a purpose once his duty is done. This trope is common in Westerns, especially those that deal with the last days of the Wild West and the closing of the frontier.
This trope or archetype (or whatever the hell you want to call it) manifests every generation or two in boxing. There's the elemental man (Jack Dempsey and Sonny Liston were in this mould) who is raw in his masculinity and fearsome in mien, pitted against the more cerebral opponent who is more popular with the fairer sex and therefore accused of being a dandy and perhaps even a homosexual by the roughneck men who throw their support behind the tough and ugly types. Everyone from Muhammad Ali to Gene Tunney and "Gentleman" Jim Corbett was poured into this latter mould.
"Shaw's Champions" examines this contrast through the prism of George Bernard Shaw's aesthetic philosophy, specifically as delineated in Shaw's early novel about a boxer, "Cashel Byron's Profession". The book also deals with some of George Bernard Shaw's life, especially those years when his path intersected that of the perhaps greatest instantiation of the Cashel Byron type, Gene "the Fighting Marine" Tunney.
Some general familiarity with boxing or George Bernard Shaw might enhance one's enjoyment of the book, but isn't necessary. It's well-written, leavened with reminiscences, excerpts from the voluminous Shaw vs. Tunney correspondence, and sprinkled with words rare enough to send the reader scrambling to an out-of-print dictionary. Recommended. Some photos and illustrations included.
This trope or archetype (or whatever the hell you want to call it) manifests every generation or two in boxing. There's the elemental man (Jack Dempsey and Sonny Liston were in this mould) who is raw in his masculinity and fearsome in mien, pitted against the more cerebral opponent who is more popular with the fairer sex and therefore accused of being a dandy and perhaps even a homosexual by the roughneck men who throw their support behind the tough and ugly types. Everyone from Muhammad Ali to Gene Tunney and "Gentleman" Jim Corbett was poured into this latter mould.
"Shaw's Champions" examines this contrast through the prism of George Bernard Shaw's aesthetic philosophy, specifically as delineated in Shaw's early novel about a boxer, "Cashel Byron's Profession". The book also deals with some of George Bernard Shaw's life, especially those years when his path intersected that of the perhaps greatest instantiation of the Cashel Byron type, Gene "the Fighting Marine" Tunney.
Some general familiarity with boxing or George Bernard Shaw might enhance one's enjoyment of the book, but isn't necessary. It's well-written, leavened with reminiscences, excerpts from the voluminous Shaw vs. Tunney correspondence, and sprinkled with words rare enough to send the reader scrambling to an out-of-print dictionary. Recommended. Some photos and illustrations included.
Displaying 1 of 1 review