Book

The big smoke / Adrian Matejka.

Matejka, Adrian, 1971- (Author).

Summary:

The legendary Jack Johnson (1878-1946) was a true American creation. The child of emancipated slaves, he overcame the violent segregationism of Jim Crow, challenging white boxers and white America to become the first African-American heavyweight world champion. The Big Smoke, Adrian Matejka's third work of poetry, follows the fighter's journey from poverty to the most coveted title in sports through the multi-layered voices of Johnson and the white women he brazenly loved. Matejka's book is part historic reclamation and part interrogation of Johnson's complicated legacy, one that often misremembers the magnetic man behind the myth.

Record details

ISBN: 9780143123729
ISBN: 0143123726
Physical Description: 109 pages ; 22 cm.
Publisher: New York : Penguin Books, 2013.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 103-105).

Formatted Contents Note:

Hurt Business. Battle Royal ; Cannibalism ; Hurt Business ; The Manly Art of Self-Defense ; The Shadow Knows ; Blues His Sweetie Gives to Me ; Shadow Boxing ; Prize Fighter ; Fisticuffs -- Weigh-In. Sporting Life ; Courtship ; "A Great Maltese Cat Toying with a White Mouse" ; Letter to Belle (May 27, 1909) ; Letter to Belle (May 29, 1909) ; Chicken & Other Stereotypes ; Letter to Belle (September 15, 1909) ; Mouth Fighting ; Shadow Boxing ; Cooking Lessons ; Introductions ; "Texas Authorities Will Prosecute the Champion if He Takes White Wife" -- Knee Off Canvas. Roadwork at Seal Rock ; Race Relations ; Shadow Boxing ; Vedi! Le fosche notturne ; Letter to Belle (March 10, 1910) ; Equality ; Photography ; "A Struggle Between a Demon and a Gritty Little Dwarf" ; The Shadow Knows ; Color Line ; Friendship ; "Machine Containing Johnson's Friends Wrecked" ; Alias ; Hostilities ; Fisticuff Difficulty -- Bet Your Last Copper. Gold Smile ; Fidelity ; Letter to Belle (December 3, 1910) ; Out of the Bath ; "Carefree as a Plantation Darky in Watermelon Time" ; Shadow Boxing ; The Battle of the Century ; Race Relations ; Marriage Proposal ; Aristocracy ; Compromises ; The Shadow Knows ; Rememory ; Ticket on the Titanic ; Il Trovatore -- No Decision. Hubert's Museum & Flea Circus (1937).