About this item
An intimate portrait of Joe Frazier, whose ferocious rivalry with Muhammad Ali made them both boxing legends and cultural touchstones for an era. Just in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the Fight of the Century (Ali-Frazier I) , Sparring with Smokin' Joe provides a penetrating, at times brutally candid, look at legendary champion Joe Frazier. Glenn Lewis spent several months in the gym, on the road, and in verbal tussles with Frazier in 1980, when Frazier was at a crossroads in his life and career. Lewis recounts Frazier's candid takes on his still-recent Hall-of-Fame career, wars with Ali, and hard-scrabble roots. Frazier also reflects on Ali's upcoming comeback fight against Larry Holmes, his own possible return to the ring, preparing his son Marvis for a pro boxing debut, and the impact of racial tensions and cultural upheaval on his fighting legacy.
About the Author
Glenn Lewis is Director of Journalism at York College, CUNY. He is also a Professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, where he has long taught a popular Nonfiction Book Writing Seminar.Lewis, a veteran journalist, has written about sports and a wide range of other subjects. His work has appeared in Publishers Weekly, Sport, Car & Driver, Seventeen, Family Weekly, Library Journal, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, among many others publications. In 1980, Lewis spent several months covering Joe Frazier and his inner circle during a crossroads in the legendary fighter's life and career. He got a first-hand look at how Frazier's epic rivalry with Muhammad Ali impacted his boxing legacy, relationship with both black and white America, and the politics of the era. It's a story the journalist has been waiting to tell for four decades.As a sportswriter, Lewis also wrote about the summer and winter Olympics, the NBA, the supremacy of Duke basketball, and the rise of women's sports. Lewis has interviewed Reggie Jackson, Bruce Jenner, Bill Bradley, Walter Payton, and many other sports stars of that era. He also profiled iconic media figures like Walter Cronkite, David Halberstam, Jim Lehrer, Betty Friedan, and Studs Terkel, among others. More recently he served periodically as an on-air Journalism expert for Fox-TV News.Lewis co-authored The Big Beauty Book, a popular health and advice title, with a Ford model (Holt) . He co-created The Southside Sluggers Baseball Mysteries series (Simon & Schuster) . He also served as Editor and sole writer for a volume of the Encyclopedia of Journalism (Sage) . The encyclopedia won the Dartmouth Medal (honorable mention) as one of the year's best reference publications.Sparring with Smokin' Joe, an intimate sports narrative by Glenn Lewis, is full of never-before-told stories about Frazier and those around him. In the end, readers will know Joe a whole lot better, and see both him and Ali in a totally different light. Lewis lives in New York City with his wife and has two grown daughters.
