Beyond a Boundary

C. L. R. James (1901–89), a Trinidadian historian, political activist, and prolific writer, was one of the twentieth century's most important intellectuals. He is the author of a renowned study of the Haitian Revolution, The Black Jacobins (1938), and a play, Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History (1934), which is published by Duke University Press.

“It's a measure of James's value as a writer that a case can be made that Beyond a Boundary is one of the best books about a sport ever written, and yet it's hard to imagine anyone placing it among the three or four most important books that James wrote. It is, however, well worth reading, because of what it tells us about James' political development, and because of its much broader lessons about sports.” - Don Lash (Socialist Worker) "Beyond a Boundary . . . should find its place on the team with Izaak Walton, Ivan Turgenev, A. J. Liebling, and Ernest Hemingway." - Derek Walcott (New York Times Book Review) “Delightful and lively, full of vivid, detailed descriptions of players and play. . . .  I doubt I'll ever sit through an entire test match, but if you told me I could only keep a half-dozen sports books, this would probably be one of them.” - Tim Marchman (Deadspin) "As a player, James the writer was able to see in cricket a metaphor for art and politics, the collective experience providing a focus for group effort and individual performance. . . . [In] his scintillating memoir of his life in cricket, Beyond a Boundary (1963), James devoted some of his finest pages to this theme."- Edward Said (Washington Post) "A work of double reverence-for the resilient, elegant ritualism of cricket and for the black people of the world."- Whitney Balliett (The New Yorker) "Beyond a Boundary is a book of remarkable richness and force, which vastly expands our understanding of sports as an element of popular culture in the Western and colonial world."- Mark Naison (The Nation) "Beyond a Boundary is . . . first and foremost an autobiography of a living legend-probably the greatest social theorist of our times." - Manning Marable (Journal of Sport & Social Issues)

• Acknowledgments ixForeword / Paget Henry xiIntroduction to the American Edition / Robert Lipsyte xviiA Note on Cricket xxiiiPreface xxviiPart One. A Window to the World 1. The Window 32. Against the Current 213. Old School-tie 39Part Two. All the World's a Stage 4. The Light and the Dark 495. Patient Merit 666. Three Generations 727. The Most Unkindest Cut 82Part Three. One Man in His Time 8. Prince and Pauper 1019. Magnanimity in Politics 11710. Wherefore Are These Things Hid? 128Part Four. To Interpose a Little Ease 11. George Headley: Nascitur Non Fit 139Part Five. W. G.: Pre-Eminent Victorian 12. What Do Men Live By? 15113. Prolegomena to W. G. 15914. W. G. 17115. Decline of the West 186Part Six. The Art and Practic Part 16. "What Is Art?" 19517. The Welfare State of Mind 212Part Seven. Vox Populi 18. The Proof of the Pudding 22519. Alma Mater: Lares and Penates 253Epilogue and Apotheosis 257Index 263