From Boxing Ring to Battlefield

The Life of War Hero Lew Jenkins

Inbunden, Engelska, 2018

510 kr

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Beskrivning

World champion boxer Lew Jenkins fought his whole life. As a child, he fought extreme poverty during the Great Depression; in his twenties, he fought as a professional boxer and became a world champion; and at the pinnacle of his boxing career, Jenkins fought in World War II and the Korean War.From Boxing Ring to Battlefield: The Life of War Hero Lew Jenkins details for the first time this extraordinary story. Despite his talent for boxing, Jenkins often fought and trained in drunken stupors. And though he became the world lightweight champion, he soon wasted his ring title and all his money. Unable to find meaning in life at the peak of his boxing success, Jenkins discovered values to which he could cling during World War II and the Korean War. His efforts earned him one of the highest decorations for bravery, the Silver Star. From Boxing Ring to Battlefield features exclusive interviews with Lew Jenkins’s son and grandson, providing a personal perspective on the life of this complicated war hero. The first biography of Jenkins, this book will fascinate boxing fans and historians alike.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2018-11-15
Mått:158 x 237 x 24 mm
Vikt:513 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:256
Förlag:Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Medarbetare:John DiSanto
ISBN:9781538116746

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Gene Pantalone is an expert on the golden age of boxing—1920 to 1950—and Madame Bey’s boxing camp, which hosted fourteen heavyweight champions and no fewer than eighty International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees. He is a contributing writer to the boxing website The Weigh-In and author of Madame Bey’s: Home to Boxing Legends.

Recensioner i media

Lew Jenkins was a fighter’s fighter. Pantalone, an independent boxing historian, charts Jenkins’s career inside and outside the ring in this fast-moving biography. In the ring, he was a devastating puncher, especially for a lightweight. A full 52 of his 74 victories came by the way of knockout. But he lost 42 contests, a significant sum for a top fighter. The text puts these numbers in context: during the 1930s, when boxers fought often and against quality opponents, win-loss records looked different from today. Jenkins held the lightweight title from May 1940 until just after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, an event that changed Jenkins’s life. Before the war, Jenkins battled alcohol and bad life choices as much as his ring opponents—he admitted himself that his "two toughest opponents were Jack Daniels and Harley Davidson”—but service in WW II (and later the Korean War) showed him at his best. He enlisted in the Coast Guard during WW II, was deployed overseas, and participated in a series of crucial landings in North Africa, Sicily, mainland Italy, and France. He was awarded the Silver Star in the Korean War. Although he returned to the ring after WW II, his skills were gone.

Innehållsförteckning

ForewordAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: A Fighting ManChapter 2: Impoverished BeginningsChapter 3: The Toast of BroadwayChapter 4: A Run at the TitleChapter 5: UnstoppableChapter 6: Just Wanted to Have a Good TimeChapter 7: FallingChapter 8: A Return to ServiceChapter 9: A Past with Jack DempseyChapter 10: A Different Kind of FightChapter 11: Consumed with GuiltChapter 12: Katie Rocks the Boxing WorldChapter 13: A Return from WarChapter 14: Bloody RidgeChapter 15: Heartbreak RidgeChapter 16: EnlightenedChapter 17: A Final FightEpilogueBibliographyAbout the Author