Synopses & Reviews
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Winner of the 2018 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing Winner of The Times Sports Biography of the Year The definitive biography of an American icon, from a bestselling author with unique access to Ali’s inner circle.
He was born Cassius Clay in racially segregated Louisville, Kentucky, the son of a sign painter and a housekeeper. He went on to become a heavyweight boxer with a dazzling mix of power and speed, a warrior for racial pride, a comedian, a preacher, a poet, a draft resister, an actor, and a lover. Millions hated him when he changed his religion, changed his name, and refused to fight in the Vietnam War. He fought his way back, winning hearts, but at great cost.
Jonathan Eig’s Ali reveals Ali in the complexity he deserves, shedding important new light on his politics, religion, personal life, and neurological condition. Ali is a story about America, about race, about a brutal sport, and about a courageous man — and the wittiest, the prettiest, the strongest, the bravest, and, of course, the greatest, as he told us himself — who shook up the world.
Review
"[A] richly researched, sympathetic yet unsparing portrait."—Joyce Carol Oates, New York Times Book
Review
“A monumental study the scope of which has not been matched. An utterly absorbing and richly detailed account of the most charismatic and controversial athlete of the 20th century.”—Mike Silver, author of The Arc of Boxing
Review
"[A] relentless, image-altering biography."—Wall Street Journal
About the Author
Jonathan Eig is the author of five critically acclaimed books, including the Pulitzer Prize winner King: A Life. He was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Monsey, New York. Eig is a former staff writer for the Wall Street Journal, and he remains a contributing writer there. He has written for the New York Times, The New Yorker, Esquire, the Washington Post, and other publications. He has appeared on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and in two Ken Burns films for PBS. He also worked with Burns to develop a documentary on Muhammad Ali that aired in 2021.