Chanté McCormick rises to the challenge of narrating Jacobs's comprehensive biography of Althea Gibson with grace, energy, and a rich voice. Gibson charted a host of firsts. She was the first Black tennis player to win Wimbledon and the US Open--and to be ranked Number 1 in the world. She was also the first Black player in the Ladies Professional Golf Association. These achievements occurred before such accomplishments came with any financial reward and at the same time that she was sometimes being refused service in hotels and restaurants. Gibson also cut a record, costarred in a John Wayne movie, and became New Jersey's Athletic Commissioner. McCormick has excellent timing and vocal variation. She beautifully matches Jacobs's view of Gibson as ambivalent about her trailblazing status. A.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson
Narrated by Chanté McCormick
Sally H. JacobsUnabridged — 19 hours, 3 minutes
Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson
Narrated by Chanté McCormick
Sally H. JacobsUnabridged — 19 hours, 3 minutes
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Overview
"Chanté McCormick rises to the challenge of narrating Jacobs's comprehensive biography of Althea Gibson with grace, energy, and a rich voice."- AudioFile
“A captivating book that brilliantly reveals an American sports legend long overlooked. Sally Jacobs tells the riveting story of Althea Gibson, my personal shero, who overcame daunting odds - on the tennis court and off - to stand at the world pinnacle of her sport and became an inspiration to many.” - Billie Jean King
In 1950, three years after Jackie Robinson first walked onto the diamond at Ebbets Field, the all-white, upper-crust US Lawn Tennis Association opened its door just a crack to receive a powerhouse player who would integrate "the game of royalty." The player was a street-savvy young Black woman from Harlem named Althea Gibson who was about as out-of-place in that rarefied and intolerant world as any aspiring tennis champion could be. Her tattered jeans and short-cropped hair drew stares from everyone who watched her play, but her astonishing performance on the court soon eclipsed the negative feelings being cast her way as she eventually became one of the greatest American tennis champions.
Gibson had a stunning career. Raised in New York and trained by a pair of tennis-playing doctors in the South, Gibson's immense talent on the court opened the door for her to compete around the world. She won top prizes at Wimbledon and Forest Hills time and time again. The young woman underestimated by so many wound up shaking hands with Queen Elizabeth II, being driven up Broadway in a snowstorm of ticker tape, and ultimately became the first Black woman to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated and the second to appear on the cover of Time. In a crowning achievement, Althea Gibson became the No. One ranked female tennis player in the world for both 1957 and 1958. Seven years later she broke the color barrier again where she became the first Black woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).
In Althea, prize-winning former Boston Globe reporter Sally H. Jacobs tells the heart-rending story of this pioneer, a remarkable woman who was a trailblazer, a champion, and one of the most remarkable Americans of the twentieth century.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press.
Editorial Reviews
05/29/2023
Journalist Jacobs (The Other Barack) offers an affecting biography of Althea Gibson (1927–2003), the “first Black woman to be the number-one tennis player in the world.” Growing up in Harlem, Gibson suffered frequent beatings by her father and was by the age of 13 among the neighborhood’s “toughest streetfighters.” Her fortunes changed when Buddy Walker, a saxophonist who also worked with city police to supervise kids playing on the streets, noticed her athleticism and bought her two tennis rackets. Chronicling Gibson’s ascent to the top of the sport, Jacobs covers how the wealthy backers of Harlem’s Black Cosmopolitan Tennis Club rallied behind her, eager to “sponsor a member of their group who showed promise,” which led to her winning several national tournaments and becoming the first African American player to compete at the U.S. Open and Wimbledon, where she won singles titles in 1957. Jacobs emphasizes the difficulties Gibson faced during and after her tennis career, including discrimination from the tennis establishment (many speculated the decision to leave her off the 1956 American Whiteman Cup team was driven by racism) and constant financial struggles—because women’s tennis had not yet become lucrative, for the first eight years of Gibson’s career she “earned so little money that she had never once had to file a tax return.” Thoroughly researched and movingly told, this warts-and-all portrayal of Gibson’s life is a winner. (Aug.)
A captivating book that brilliantly reveals an American sports legend long overlooked. Sally Jacobs tells the riveting story of Althea Gibson, my personal shero, who overcame daunting odds – on the tennis court and off - to stand at the world pinnacle of her sport and became an inspiration to many.”
— Billie Jean King
"Althea was truly a multi-hyphenate before that term came to be. Her name has often been listed in conversations about trailblazers and greats, but she was, in fact, one of one. As an African American female tennis player who won the US Open 60 years after Althea won the US Nationals, I recognize the opportunities this sport has provided me thanks to the courageous life of Althea Gibson. I was captivated by this book and by the historical context of Althea's achievements, her challenges, and ultimately her determination both on and off the court.”
— Sloane Stephens
“A gripping biography that tells the inspirational story of one of America's greatest unsung athletes who was a model not only to me but many others on the court. I might not have accomplished what I did without her opening the door. Let this masterful account move others to aspire to greatness.”
— Katrina M. Adams, Executive Director, Harlem Junior Tennis & Education Program, vice president of the International Tennis Federation, former President and CEO of the United States Tennis Association, and a former WTA Tour Player.
"A comprehensive and elegantly written life of Althea Gibson, one of the greatest athletes America has produced … An essential book about an incomparably authentic American pioneer and the times in which she lived.”
— Kirkus (starred review)
"Thoroughly researched and movingly told, this warts-and-all portrayal of Gibson’s life is a winner."
— Publisher's Weekly
“Engrossing … Jacobs [is] here to reintroduce a supreme athlete every bit as important as Arthur Ashe or Billie Jean King … [makes] an airtight case that Gibson is the most undersung athlete in U.S. history.”
— The Washington Post
“Jacobs gracefully chronicles [Gibson’s] triumphs on- and off-court.”
— People
“In tennis, love means nothing. But love is everything when it comes to Sally Jacobs and her deft handling of Althea Gibson’s remarkable life and legacy. That sensitivity is most impressive when tackling Althea’s often turbulent days in Harlem, and Jacobs smartly evokes the give and take between a budding tennis star and her historic community. To return to tennis terminology: Jacobs aces this biography.”
—Herb Boyd, author of Pound for Pound—A Biography of Sugar Ray Robinson
"Althea Gibson was difficult to know and even more difficult to understand. Sally Jacobs has carefully documented the important events in Gibson’s career, bringing to light many details not previously reported while providing the historical context for the challenges she faced. The reader surely will come away with the sober understanding of the societal barriers a young, Black woman faced trying to gain entrance into a white dominated sport. Althea is a marvelous achievement."
—Gary Cogar, former museum director of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, exhibition developer of the 2007 US Open exhibit Breaking the Barriers: A History of Black Tennis, and former board member of the Black Tennis Hall of Fame
06/01/2023
When World War II ended, women and Black people sought a more equitable place within society, especially considering the contributions and sacrifices they had made for the country's war effort. George Polk Award—winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Jacobs (The Other Barack) contends that no discussion of this shift can be held without considering Althea Gibson, whose life and achievements bridged this era. Jacobs deftly tells Gibson's story. Born into a family of sharecroppers in 1926 in South Carolina, Gibson moved to Harlem in 1930 for a better life than what was available in the segregated South, where racism prevailed. Her family remained downtrodden, but Gibson's athletic success in every sport she tried led her to tennis. She was a powerful and aggressive player whose mindset and style were often judged to be too masculine. She earned Wimbledon, French Open, and U.S. Open wins, but she still made virtually no money from the sport and faced racial barriers, even as the U.S. government used her on global tennis propaganda tours to show the world the successful integration of Black people into American society. Through extensive research and interviews, Jacobs reveals plenty about Gibson. VERDICT Recommended for tennis fans and readers interested in race.—Brian Renvall
★ 2023-04-04
A noted journalist chronicles the tumultuous life of the first Black American tennis superstar.
Jacobs, author of The Other Barack, presents a comprehensive and elegantly written life of Althea Gibson (1927-2003), one of the greatest athletes America has produced, capturing the considerable triumphs and obstacles she met throughout her life. The author is particularly adept at describing the personal and social conditions in which Gibson rose. An abused daughter languishing on the streets of Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance and the Depression, she flourished on the court, breaking the color barrier and rising to the top in the wealthy White sport of tennis. Jacobs also describes the contributions of Gibson's supporters and benefactors, who made her Grand Slam championship career possible, including Sugar Ray Robinson, several top women players of the day, and Hubert A. Eaton and Robert W. Johnson, civil rights leaders and tennis aficionados who instilled discipline, refinement, and excellence in her game and life. Jacobs writes compellingly and sensitively about societal pressures that the complex and multitalented Gibson endured, including from an often critical Black press (that sometimes trafficked in rumors about her sexuality), to not only excel on the court, but to stand at the forefront of the mid-20th-century Civil Rights Movement despite her natural reticence about such matters. Gibson, writes the author, "let her success…speak for her and for the potential of her race, rather than her raised fist.” As Jacobs demonstrates, such success paved the way for Black players such as Arthur Ashe, Zina Garrison, and Venus and Serena Williams. The author profiles Gibson in full, including her stint with the U.S. State Department, her magnanimous contributions to youth tennis instruction, and the loneliness and financial difficulty of her later life. The book is a fascinating study of Gibson through the prism of 20th-century America.
An essential book about an incomparably authentic American pioneer and the times in which she lived.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940175675673 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Macmillan Audio |
| Publication date: | 08/15/2023 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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