Truth is stranger than fiction and Gene Tunney's story really does read like fiction. The boy from a working-class Irish family was raised in New York's Greenwich Village then worked as a clerk until he joined the US Marine Corps and served in France until the Armistice. Tunney's fighting took place in the boxing ring and he returned home as champion of the American Expeditionary Force. His old job gone, he became a professional boxer and set his sights on Jack Dempsey, famed and feared heavyweight champion of the world. In 1928 he retired as undefeated champion and a millionaire to marry a beautiful heiress to the Carnegie steel fortune. As successful in business as boxing, Tunney became a captain of industry. His circle of friends included the President and such writers as Thornton Wilder and George Bernard Shaw. This is his amazing life story.
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About the Author
John Jarrett has been a student of boxing since 1946 and has been writing about the sport since 1951 when his first article appeared in Boxing News. He also writes for Sportsworld and contributes to The British Boxing Board of Control Yearbook. He is Northern Area Secretary for the British Boxing Board of Control Ltd.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gene Tunney by John Jarret,
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This review is from: Gene Tunney: The Golden Guy Who Licked Jack Dempsey Twice (Hardcover)
A serviceable, if not great, biography of a heavyweight champion who had the misfortune to defeat one of the Ring's most popular heavyweight champions (Jack Dempsey)and suffered accordingly with the public. The biography traces Tunney's development as a boxer and faithfully consults secondary sources about his ring career. The biography would have been improved if the author had delved more into Gene's personal development. The reader is left wondering how much of Gene's publicized love of literature was genuine and how much was someone trying to contradict the public's expectations of what boxers were suppose to be like. That Tunney was an intelligent boxer is part of boxing lore,but again this point could have been developed better. The single defeat in his career to Harry Greb, followed by vindicating return victories, would appear to be a subject worth exploring.What did he learn from his defeat by Harry Greb and how did he use this knowledge to overcome the only blemish on his record? This is the most obvious example, but there would be other opportunities to develop this theme. The book does mention Tunney's eventual decline into alcoholism, apparently caused by the tragedy of his daughter's murder of her husband. How pervasive this was is unexplored.Unfortunately, the biography is more a recording of facts and lacks the illuminating analysis/interpretation of great biography.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Solid but unspectacular,
By Peter (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gene Tunney: The Golden Guy Who Licked Jack Dempsey Twice (Hardcover)
Gene Tunney was a very unlucky heavyweight champion, he was born with good looks, intelligence and excellent boxing ability but came at a time when he would have to meet and beat (twice!) a living legend in the form of Jack Dempsey. The public would not forget the taming of the Manassa Mauler by Tunney.The book is well written but a touch bland, as if the author did minimal research except go through the books about the time and quote passages. There seemed to be little new material uncovered. I would have liked more about Tunney as a man, what did he do once he left boxing? Was he successful, if so, how?
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