11 records matched your query       

Author:

Kranish, Michael, author.

Title:

The world's fastest man : the extraordinary life of cyclist Major Taylor, America's first Black sports hero / Michael Kranish.

Edition:

First Scribner hardcover edition.

Publisher:

Scribner,

Copyright Date:

2019

Description:

x, 365 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits : 24 cm

Subject:

Taylor, Major,--1878-1932.
Cyclists--United States--Biography.
African American cyclists--Biography.
Biographies.

Notes:

Includes bibliography (pages 343-349) and index.

Summary:

"In the tradition of The Boys in the Boat and Seabiscuit, a fascinating portrait of a groundbreaking but forgotten figure--the remarkable Major Taylor, the black man who broke racial barriers by becoming the world's fastest and most famous bicyclist at the height of the Jim Crow era. In the 1890s, the nation's promise of equality had failed spectacularly. While slavery had ended with the Civil War, the Jim Crow laws still separated blacks from whites, and the excesses of the Gilded Age created an elite upper class. Amidst this world arrived Major Taylor, a young black man who wanted to compete in the nation's most popular and mostly white man's sport, cycling. Birdie Munger, a white cyclist who once was the world's fastest man, declared that he could help turn the young black athlete into a champion. Twelve years before boxer Jack Johnson and fifty years before baseball player Jackie Robinson, Taylor faced racism at nearly every turn--especially by whites who feared he would disprove their stereotypes of blacks. In The World's Fastest Man, years in the writing, investigative journalist Michael Kranish reveals new information about Major Taylor based on a rare interview with his daughter and other never-before-uncovered details from Taylor's life. Kranish shows how Taylor indeed became a world champion, traveled the world, was the toast of Paris, and was one of the most chronicled black men of his day. From a moment in time just before the arrival of the automobile when bicycles were king, the populace was booming with immigrants, and enormous societal changes were about to take place, The World's Fastest Man shines a light on a dramatic moment in American history--the gateway to the twentieth century"-- Provided by publisher.
"In the tradition of The Boys in the Boat and Seabiscuit, a fascinating portrait of a groundbreaking but forgotten figure--the remarkable Major Taylor, the black man who broke racial barriers by becoming the world's fastest and most famous bicyclist at the height of the Jim Crow era"-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

1501192604
9781501192609
1501192590
9781501192593

OCLC:

(OCoLC)1088602185

LCCN:

2019006827

Locations:

GBPF771 -- Ankeny Kirkendall Public Library (Ankeny)

TCPG826 -- Bettendorf Public Library Information Center (Bettendorf)

KSPG296 -- Burlington Public Library (Burlington)

SAPG074 -- Cedar Falls Public Library (Cedar Falls)

TYPH572 -- Cedar Rapids Public Library (Cedar Rapids)

OOAX232 -- Clinton Community College Library (Clinton)

BAPH771 -- Des Moines Public Library (Des Moines)

FXPH314 -- Carnegie-Stout Public Library (Dubuque)

CAPH522 -- Iowa City Public Library (Iowa City)

YEPF572 -- Marion Public Library (Marion)

KWPE446 -- Mount Pleasant Public Library (Mount Pleasant)

GUPF501 -- Newton Public Library (Newton)

GZPE631 -- Pella Public Library (Pella)

LAPH975 -- Sioux City Public Library (Sioux City)

GDPF771 -- Urbandale Public Library (Urbandale)

SFPH074 -- Waterloo Public Library (Waterloo)

BJPD251 -- Waukee Public Library (Waukee)

SMPE094 -- Waverly Public Library (Waverly)

GEPG771 -- West Des Moines Public Library (West Des Moines)