Syllabi January 28, 2010

Literary authors have always been drawn to boxing, and many have written beautifully about the sport. Despite dire prediction of its demise, boxing persists and, cyclically, thrives; fortunately, over the past half century and more, talented writers have chronicled its appeal while dissecting its ugliness. The nature of the sport—two human beings in competition, distilled to its barest essence—lends itself to contemplation of bigger ideas and deeper meanings. The Sweet Science by A. J. Liebling Liebling’s sharp-eyed, sharp-eared, and sharp-witted tome is the foundation, the boxing book referenced by every other. Although he wrote in a glorious era—the days of