Strong Boy: The Life and Times of John L. Sullivan, America’s First Sports Hero Audiobook

Quotes

• “Sullivan was perhaps the first real American sports superstar and especially because he meant so much as a minority champion…As important a cultural figure as he was a sports idol.”

  — Frank Deford, New York Times bestselling author and senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated

• “Travel back to the 1880s and sample some nickel beer, free lunch, horse trolleys, and the babble of immigrants. Christopher Klein, in this well-researched book, delivers the sportin’ life of the Gilded Age when Americans crowned their first athlete-king, John L. Sullivan, in coast-to-coast banner headlines.”

  — Richard Zacks, New York Times bestselling author

• “In this muscular, relentlessly detailed book, Christopher Klein not only tells Sullivan’s story but also documents the evolution of boxing from illicit bare-knuckle savagery akin to today’s steel-cage extravaganzas to the ‘sweet science’ of legally sanctioned bouts between skillful gloved opponent.”

  — Wall Street Journal

• “From the first page to the last, Klein’s prose retains its powers of enchantment and illumination. It is one of the best boxing books ever penned.”

  — Boston Globe

• "[A] treasure trove of information that covers sports, celebrity, crime, politics, and entertainment…[and] tracks John L. Sullivan, the ‘Boston Strong Boy,’ across the country and globe as he rises from the tenement to the heavyweight championship and everything that came with it.”

  — Publishers Weekly

• “Attentive as he is to historical details, Klein’s storytelling gift is most evident in how he depicts ‘John L.’ as a beloved hero who was eventually undone by ego and who had a legendary appetite for food and drink…A lively, consistently entertaining sports biography.”

  — Kirkus Reviews