Biography & Autobiography : Sports

Teddy Atlas knows boxing like no one else. In Atlas, Teddy recounts his incredible life, from juvenile delinquent on the mean streets of Staten Island in the 1970s, to his induction into the legendary Cus D'Amato's Boxing Camp and his first major challenge – training 14–year–old Mike Tyson. An amateur boxer trained by D'Amato, Atlas captured the Adirondack Golden Gloves title at 139 pounds in 1976. Forced out of competition because of injury, Teddy turned his talents to training fighters. His long list of charges have included many world champions past, present and future. Teddy trained future heavyweight champion Mike Tyson when Tyson was an amateur living in D'Amato's home in Catskill, New York. He trained featherweight champion Barry McGuigan, super bantamweight and super featherweight champion Tracy Patterson, super featherweight and lightweight champion Joey Gamache, welterweight champion Simon Brown and light heavyweight champion Donny Lalonde. In 1994, in a memorable performance as trainer and cornerman, Teddy inspired Michael Moorer to beat Evander Holyfield for the world heavyweight championship. Teddy has also employed his talents outside of the ring. He trained dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp for her successful comeback at age 42. He trained actor Willem Dafoe for his role as a boxer in the holocaust film "Triumph of the Spirit", and while on location in Poland, Teddy choreographed the film's boxing scenes and appeared as one of Dafoe's opponents. Teddy also choreographed fight scenes for the television series "Against the Law." And he appeared in the movies "Play it to the Bone" and "Only in America: The Don King Story.". Atlas is the remarkable story of all of these achievements, told in Atlas's completely inimitable voice. As you'd expect from a boxing memoir, it pulls no punches. more...

Price: $10.95

Lance Armstrong is the winner of the 2002 Tour de France! Now Includes New Chapter on Tour De France 2000 and Olympics This is the story of one man's journey through triumph, tragedy, transformation, and transcendance. It is the story of Lance Armstrong, the world-famous two-time winner of the Tour de France, and his fight against cancer. People magazine called it "inspiring." The New York Times called it "fascinating." But perhaps the Cincinnati Enquirer said it best: "It's not about the bike, or about the sport. It's about the soul." more...

Price: $9.99

Sailing Alone Around the World (1899) is a sailing memoir by Joshua Slocum about his single-handed global circumnavigation aboard the sloop Spray . Slocum was the first person to sail around the world alone, the book was an immediate success and highly influential in inspiring later travelers. Captain Slocum, a highly experienced navigator and ship-owner, rebuilt and refitted the derelict sloop Spray in a seaside pasture at Fairhaven, Massachusetts during a thirteen-month period between early 1893 and 1894. Between April 24, 1895 and June 27, 1898, Slocum, aboard the Spray , crossed the Atlantic twice (to Gibraltar and back to South America), negotiated the Strait of Magellan, and crossed the Pacific. He also visited Australia and South Africa before crossing the Atlantic (for the third time) to reach home after a journey of 46,000 miles. There was considerable international interest in Slocum's journey, particularly once he had entered the Pacific; he was awaited at most of his ports of call, and gave lectures and lantern-slide shows to well-filled halls. His journal, which is masterfully self-deprecating, was first published in installments before being issued in book form in 1900 (variously 1899). The book was lavishly illustrated. Slocum tells his story as a sequence of adventures, understating his own part and giving credit always to the Spray . He even invents a Columbus' crew-member: the pilot of the Pinta to take credit for the safety of the vessel while he sleeps. The trip itinerary went as follows: Fairhaven, Boston, Gloucester, Nova Scotia, Azores, Gibraltar, (Morocco), Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Maldonado, Montevideo, Strait of Magellan, Cockburn Channel, Port Angosto, Juan Fernandez, Marquesas, Samoa, Fiji, Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania, Cooktown, Christmas Island, Keeling Cocos, Rodriguez, Mauritius, Durban, Cape Town, (Transvaal), St Helena, Ascension Island, Devil's Island, Trinidad, Grenada, Newport, Fa more...

Price: $5.95

After winning the Olympic Gold in 1976 at age 19, Dorothy Hamill was “America’s Sweetheart” and an idol to millions. She swept the nation with her signature haircut, “Hamill” camel spin, and sparkling smile. But this gifted and supremely talented figure skater lived a life off the ice encumbered with family and financial tribulations. She and her mother spent long months away from her father and siblings so she could properly train, and Dorothy often questioned whether the outcome was worth the sacrifice as she attempted to handle an emotionally unavailable mother, alcoholic father, and a financial toll on her entire family. Skating has always been Dorothy’s only means of escape, but an intense depression took over when Dorothy found that success did not wash away the constant stress of trying to please her parents and coaches. She married the love of her life, Dean Paul Martin, only to face devastation when he was tragically killed in a plane crash shortly after their marriage ended. Dorothy was plummeted into an even deeper depression and struggled to find fulfillment. When she was finally capable of opening her heart to love again, she remarried and gave birth to her daughter, only to be taken advantage of by her philandering second husband who stole her money. The burden of the strained relationship with her parents on top of her broken heart tested Dorothy’s strength—but she prevailed. more...

Price: $18.95

There will never be another surfer like Miki "Da Cat" Dora. All for a Few Perfect Waves is the story of Miki "Da Cat" Dora, the dashing and enigmatic rebel who, for twenty years, was the king of Malibu surfers. He dominated the waves, ruled his peers' imaginations, and—to this day—inspires the fantasies of decades of Dora wannabes who began to swarm his pristine paradise after the movie Gidget helped surfing explode into the mainstream and changed it forever—many say for the worse. Disenchanted, Dora railed against the ruination; angry that the waves were no longer his own, he fought back—or found better things to do. Dora was also an avid sportsman, raconteur, philosopher, traveler—and scam artist of wide repute. When, in 1973, he finally ran afoul of the law, he soon abandoned America and led the FBI and Interpol on a seven-year chase around the globe. At the same time, he never gave up searching for (and occasionally finding) the empty waves and spirit of the Malibu he'd lost. From homes in New Zealand to South Africa to France, he continued to personify the rebel heart of surfing and has been widely acknowledged as "the most relentlessly committed surfer of all time.". The New York Times named him "the most renegade spirit the sport has yet to produce." Vanity Fair called him "a dark prince of the beach." The Times (London) wrote, "A hero to a generation of beach bums. He was tanned . . . good-looking . . . trouble.". To capture Dora's never-before-told story, David Rensin spent four years interviewing more than three hundred of Dora's friends, enemies, family members, lovers, and peers—none of whom would previously talk in depth about him—to uncover the truth about surfing's most outrageous practitioner, charismatic prince, chief antihero, committed loner, and enduring mystery. The result is a riveting and living portrait of an uncommon char more...

Price: $19.95