Sparring with Hemingway

the long version

Budd Schulberg's love affair with boxing began when he was twelve, when his father took him to the fights at the Hollywood Legion. Over the years, between his celebrated novels and screenplays, he has been Sports Illustrated's first boxing editor and covered title bouts for Playboy, Esquire, Newsday, and the New York Post. Sparring with Hemingway collects for the first time the best of Mr. Schulberg's "takes" on the Sweet Science, from "The Great" Benny Leonard to Muhammad Ali to George Foreman: memorable personalities and their unforgettable fights. Mr. Schulberg is a passionate fan as well as an expert observer (of boxing and human nature), and his stories capture the sights, sounds, and sometimes even the smells of the fight game. Along with vivid pieces on the great fights and the great fighters of the last seventy-five years, Mr. Schulberg offers reflections on the social history of boxing, explores the mystique of the heavyweight championship, rails against the seamy side of the boxing business, and recalls his celebrated sparring match with Ernest Hemingway, when two aficionados of "the game" had a verbal (verging on physical) go at each other. In the opinion of anxious onlookers, "Papa bullied him all over the ring but finally quit between rounds."