My article in today’s The Atlantic — Meet Boxing’s Great White, Rich, Notre Dame-Educated Hope – about Mike Lee.
This entry was written by , posted on 7 Jul ’11 at 2:18 pm, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
George Kimball, one of our era’s great boxing writers, died yesterday, July 6, 2011.
I met George for the first and last time a few months ago. It would be at one of his final book readings. We were in a basement club in New York talking about boxing and our books. Actually, George wasn’t really talking. He had been diagnosed with inoperable esophageal cancer in the summer of 2005 and he didn’t look well. Cancer had made it impossible for him to speak at any length of time so he had an actor record a passage from a profile of Lenny DeJesus, the New York cutman and trainer. There was something haunting about listening to the piece that way. As he listened to his own piece of writing, it seemed to me that he was proud of it, but also interested in the reaction of the audience. He looked like a kid waiting for the approval of a father. He obviously still cared about writing, and it was inspiring to me. George’s profile was a meticulous piece of writing, but, in all honesty, the event was depressing because it felt like nobody cared about boxing books. Only a handful of people showed up, I probably went on too long about the dismal state of the sweet science and my adventures with Manny Pacquiao, and George didn’t look very well. He was determined to come to the reading, however, and he signed copies of his latest–and last–book, At the Fights American Writers On Boxing. (He wrote a nice inscription to me calling me “Pacquiao’s Boswell,” which I will treasure always.)
Kimball, if you’re not aware of his work, spent more than two decades at the Boston Herald, and also wrote for the Irish Times. He wrote beautifully about boxing and penned an outstanding book about the sport: Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran, and the Last Great Era of Boxing (2008).
At the end of the evening, that night in April, I exchanged a few words with George and expressed my admiration for his writing. He smiled and shook my hand. Before I left, I talked to a friend who had accompanied him to the reading. She told me George was still making plans for articles, still trying to get to the boxing gym to hear the stories, and to turn them into prose. He was a writer, a boxing writer, to the end.
This entry was written by , posted on at 11:01 am, filed under Boxing, Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
A piece I wrote for TIME.com relating to the crises in Japan: On the West Coast, A Paranoid Run on Iodine Pills: The news from Japan has tapped into irrational an fear of faraway disasters sneaking into California With the Speed of the Wind
This entry was written by , posted on 17 Mar ’11 at 1:16 pm, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
A short essay I wrote for TIME.com about the Japanese earthquake, and the threat of a tsunami hitting Los Angeles.
This entry was written by , posted on 11 Mar ’11 at 6:55 pm, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
PacMan: Behind the Scenes With Manny Pacquiao (Da Capo) has been included in the Los Angeles Times Book Review section’s 2010 Books Gift Guide. It is a great honor to be on this elite list, which includes books like Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, Keith Richard’s Life, and some good sports books like Jane Leavy’s The Last Boy. PacMan was one of only nine sports books on the list in 2010.
Also, The Guardian has recommended the PacMan as a top sports book. “Gary Andrew Poole’s PacMan has something of both the breathless urgency of Pacquiao in the ring and the extraordinary chaos that accompanies him outside,” says Huw Richards of The Guardian.
This entry was written by , posted on 5 Dec ’10 at 3:20 pm, filed under Boxing, PacMan, Sports, Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
The Long Fast Death of Manny Pacquiao, my latest in Esquire.
This entry was written by , posted on 15 Nov ’10 at 9:22 pm, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
My article in TIME about Pacquiao-Margarito: Boxing: Is Manny Pacquiao Ready for the Tijuana Tornado?
This entry was written by , posted on 12 Nov ’10 at 11:45 pm, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
PacMan: Behind the Scenes With Manny Pacquiao (Da Capo) is now in bookstores. It has been the number one boxing book on Amazon US, Amazon UK, and on the Kindle for the last two weeks. (Click here for Amazon US; here for Amazon UK; and here for the Kindle.)
The book has been getting lots of attention and rave reviews. I have been interviewed on radio programs in the United States and the UK, I have a cover story in American Way Magazine, the book has been praised in Sports Illustrated, New York Newsday, and in the boxing press, and I have been interviewed by the Daily Telegraph and several other outlets, and a lot more talk about the book will happen this week because Pacquiao is featured on Sunday’s 60 Minutes (the program used my book to help research its segment) and he fights the following Saturday (November 13) at Cowboys Stadium. Look for the book in the Dallas, Las Vegas and Los Angeles airports, too. There is a poster give-way with every purchase of PacMan.
I will be in Dallas covering the fight. To reach me, please use email: gap [AT] garyandrewpoole [DOT] com
Praise for PacMan: Behind The Scenes With Manny Pacquiao–The Greatest Pound-for-Pound Fighter in the World (Da Capo)
“Gary Andrew Poole’s excellent biography of boxing’s pound-for-pound kingpin is absolutely worth the read.”–Sports Illustrated
“This is good, one for the ages. It’s not the work of a ridiculous fan boy. It’s a fantastic book. It’s quality. If you listen to me enough, you know I don’t endorse books that are garbage.” Steve Bunce, BBC (Interview here.)
“It is an amazing behind-the-scenes look into the life of Manny Pacquiao. Thus far, no other journalist has gone this deep into the life of Pacquiao. Poole had tremendous access while he traveled the world reporting and observing the fighter. The effort has paid off for the readers because the book is brutally honest. Poole takes you on a one-of-a-kind ride into the one-of-a-kind life of Manny Pacquiao.”–New York Newsday
“Poole takes you on a journey to Planet Pacquiao and it couldn’t have been a better read…I loved the book from beginning to end, it’s a fantastic, entertaining and informative read…and I consider it to be as good as any boxing biography my hands have ever touched.”–Boxing Insider
“PacMan tells the rags to riches story of this remarkable boxer who has begun a journey which will see him transcend the sport. It is a fine biography.”–The Daily Telegraph
“If you don’t know Pacquiao’s amazing story, Poole will open your eyes. If you know Pacquiao already, Poole will help you know him more deeply. And with a masterful guide like Poole leading you down the path, you’ll enjoy the experience immensely.”–The Queensberry Rules
“Well written and provides fresh in-sight into the life of the world’s most-popular boxer.”–The Ring
For a daily dose of PacMan book news, go to the PacMan: The Book FaceBook page.
This entry was written by , posted on 5 Nov ’10 at 9:28 pm, filed under Boxing, PacMan, Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
My dog, Alice.
This entry was written by , posted on 29 Jul ’10 at 11:44 am, filed under Uncategorized and tagged dogs. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
General Santos City, Philippines.
This entry was written by , posted on at 11:06 am, filed under Uncategorized and tagged fish. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.