Director's Meet, Mingle, Read Series: Christopher Klein, author of Strong Boy

Meet Christopher Klein, author of Strong Boy: The Life and Times of John L. Sullivan, America's First Sports Hero.

“I can lick any son-of-a-bitch in the world.”

So boasted John L. Sullivan, the first modern heavyweight boxing

champion of the world, a man who  was the gold standard of American

sport for more than a decade, and the first athlete to earn more than a

million dollars.  He had a big ego, big mouth, and bigger appetites. 

His womanizing, drunken escapades, and chronic police-blotter presence

were godsends to a burgeoning newspaper industry.  The larger-than-life

boxer embodied the American Dream for late nineteenth-century immigrants

as he rose from Boston’s Irish working class to become the most

recognizable man in the nation.  In the process, the “Boston Strong Boy”

transformed boxing from outlawed bare-knuckle fighting into the gloved

spectacle we know today.

Strong Boy tells the story of America’s first sports superstar,

a self-made man who personified the power and excesses of the Gilded

Age.  Everywhere John L. Sullivan went, his fists backed up his

bravado.  Sullivan’s epic brawls, such as his 75-round bout against Jake

Kilrain, and his cross-country barnstorming tour in which he literally

challenged all of America to a fight are recounted in vivid detail, as

are his battles outside the ring with a troubled marriage, wild weight

and fitness fluctuations, and raging alcoholism.  Strong Boy

gives readers ringside seats to the colorful tale of one of the

country’s first Irish-American heroes and the birth of the American

sports media and the country’s celebrity obsession with athletes.

Christopher Klein is a writer specializing in history, travel, and sports.  His books include Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands: A Guide to the City's Hidden Shores and The Die-Hard Sports Fan's Guide to Boston.

Christopher is a frequent contributor to the Boston Globe and History.com, the web site for the History Channel.  He has also written for the New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, Harvard Magazine, Red Sox Magazine, ESPN.com, Smithsonian.com, and AmericanHeritage.com.  He lives in Andover, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.  Visit his website at christopherklein.com.

This free program is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Somerville Public Library and the Harvard Coop Bookstore and all are welcome to attend.