"MY LIFE, ALMOST FROM ITS VERY START, HAS BEEN FILLED WITH TRAGEDY AND ROMANCE, FAILURE AND SUCCESS, POVERTY AND WEALTH, MISERY AND HAPPINESS"

JOHNSON, Jack. Jack Johnson The Man. With Boxing Instructions and Health Hints. No place, [1933]. Octavo, original thick brown paper wrappers, pp.48. $3000.

First edition of this collection of articles by and about Jack Johnson, with 12 photographic illustrations, inscribed on the inside cover, "To Bill Glaser From Former Champion Jack Johnson."

When Jack Johnson defeated Canadian Tommy Burns in 1908 to become the world's first African-American heavyweight champion, the white-dominated boxing community immediately set out to find a legitimate white contender for the heavyweight title. The media of the time called it the search for "The Great White Hope." By refusing to fight other black fighters, Johnson found himself in a division so weak that former champion Jim Jeffries had actually retired unchallenged (Jeffries was later persuaded to come out of retirement to fight Johnson, only to throw in the towel in the 15th round, inciting a wave of race riots). Johnson's comportment outside the ring brought him as much notoriety and fame as his actions inside it. He owned his own jazz band, which performed in his own Chicago nightclub. He drove a flashy yellow sports car and flaunted gold teeth (once described by Jack London as his "golden smile"). It was seven years before the talented and self-assured champion would taste defeat. Johnson lost his title in 1915 to Jess Willard, the largest man ever to venture into the sport.

"In his book Jack Johnson the Man, he described his life like this: 'My life, almost from its very start, has been filled with tragedy and romance, failure and success, poverty and wealth, misery and happiness. All these conflicting conditions that have crowded in upon me and plunged me into struggles with warring forces have made me somewhat a unique character in the world of today and the story of my life I have led, may therefore not only contain some interest if told for its own sake, but may also shed some light on the life of our times'…The book contains a foreword by J. B. Lewis, which addressed, in the language of the day, the way in which racism influenced attitudes toward the athlete: "'When [Johnson] successfully fought his way to the world championship, instead of his achievement mitigating those [racist] prejudices and jealousies, they were intensified and more than that, there were many who called themselves honorable, charitable and sportsmanlike, who stubbornly refused to credit Jack with the same degree of consideration and respect that would have been given a white man, even though that white man did far worse things in the world of morals than were ever done by Jack'" (Eric W. Jentsch, "Jack Johnson: the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion," National Museum of American History blog, February 27, 2017).

Text fine, front cover with "Price 50 Cents" neatly inked out, spine fold expertly repaired.