Product Description

World champion at 19... One of the first black athletes to become world champion in any sport... 1-mile record holder... American sprint champion in 1898, 1899, 1900... triumphant tours of Europe and Australia... Victories against all European champions...

Until now a forgotten, shadowy figure, Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor is here revealed as one of the early sports world's most stylish, entertaining, and gentlemanly personalities. Born in 1878 in Indianapolis, the son of poor rural parents, Taylor worked in a bike shop until prominent bicycle racer "Birdie" Munger coached him for his first professional racing successes in 1896. Despite continuous bureaucratic -- and, at times, physical -- opposition, he won his first national championship two years later and became world champion in 1899 in Montreal. This beautifully illustrated, vividly narrated, and scrupulously researched biography recreates the life of a great international athlete at the turn of the century. Based on ten years of research -- including extensive interviews with Major Taylor's 91-year old daughter -- this is the dramatic story of a young black man who, against prodigious odds, rose to fame and stardom in the tempestuous world of international professional bicycle racing a century ago.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #302113 in Books
• Published on: 1996-05-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.com Review
Long before Jackie Robinson crossed baseball's color line, before Jack Johnson spawned a line of Great White Hopes desperate to take the heavyweight boxing crown back from a black man, Major Taylor was setting records and fighting bigotry in one of the most popular athletic arenas of the turn of the century. The "Extraordinary" in the title of this steady biography is not just spinning wheels.

Both a world and national champion, Taylor bicycled to glory on three continents. His name on the marquee meant added revenue and attendance. In Europe, he was a superstar, and treated like one. Yet he was mocked by fellow riders in America, shunned by his sport's establishment, and died forgotten and penniless in Chicago in 1932. Part of why Taylor should be remembered is the way he reacted to the hatred he had to ride against: "I always played the game fairly and tried my hardest," he wrote in his own autobiography, which Ritchie thoroughly mines, "although I was not always given a square deal or anything like it ... I only ask from them the same kind of treatment which I give and am willing to continue to give."

Ritchie does yeoman's service in reviving Taylor's story and giving it context with a carefully studied examination of what life was like for black Americans 100 years ago. More importantly, he reaches into the muck of the past and returns with a clear picture of an endangered species: the thoroughly decent human being. --Jeff Silverman

From Publishers Weekly
Ritchie (King of the Road, etc.) presents a moving biography of Marshall W. "Major" Taylor (1878-1932), a now nearly forgotten bicycle racer who was one of the world's premier athletes. Lionized in Europe and Australia, where he defeated reigning national champions, Taylor was the victim of racism at home in the U.S. He struggled throughout his 16-year racing career to earn a living in the sport. A quiet, deeply religious manhe lost income by refusing to race on Sundayshe was popular with the public but shunned by most of his white counterparts. Taylor's success on the racetrack, we're shown, was as much a tribute to his courage as to his enormous skill. After his athletic career ended his life was a series of personal and business setbacks; he died in a Chicago welfare hospital at age 53. Ritchie's sympathetic portrait should appeal to a broader audience than cycling enthusiastsit is the story of a genuine American hero. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Marshall W. "Major" Taylor was an American world champion at the turn of the century when bicycle racing was a major spectator sport in the United States. His virtual anonymity today, says the author, can be traced to the demise of bicycle racing in this country and to Taylor's being black. Drawing on Taylor's autobiography and news accounts of his feats, Ritchie has developed a compelling account of his upbringing, racing career, and life after racing. Dying penniless at the age of 53, a lifelong victim of Jim Crowism, Taylor was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. Later exhumed, his remains were interred at a more honorable site. Recommended. Robert Jordan, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Important History - Not Just About Bicycling
This book was originally published by Bicycle Books in San Francisco. I would hope that it would still be available, even though 5 years ago hardback copies were selling at chain bookstores for as little as $4 a copy. The Ritchie book is written not just from the perspective of bicycling history (although it is well-researched from that point of view), but as an important social history. In addition, it reminds us of the history of the development of transportation and how bicycles were eventually pushed out of the public vision of having right-of-way to being relegated to the closed track of the velodrome so they wouldn't get in the way of the growing automobile culture. Major Taylor's career is important in the history of racism and attempted and often effective exclusion of Blacks not just from racing opportunities, but from the subsequent business opportunities that followed on the heels of the age of the turn-of-the-century racers. The largest reason that Major Taylor died a pauper was because he was not allowed to participate on an equal level with White businessmen in the developing automobile industry, according to Ritchie's research. Turn of the century bicycle racers, as Ritchie points out, were instrumental in contributing to the design of the shock system and the use of pneumatic tires, among other features, of the emerging American automobile. They also were some of the large investors in the industry upon their retirement from active racing status. Taylor wanted to participate in the design process and applied to a university for formal education in engineering, but was denied access, despite his hard-won efforts, previous inventions in bicycle design and testing, and celebrity status. The fact that the man died early of a stroke and alienated from his family and community in the end can only speak of a man who, after putting out his entire life, had finally been broken by the pressure of living in a racist society. Yet, writing his autobiography and selling it door to door evokes the phoenix-like quality of many members of the Black community who survive and thrive in spite of great hardship, even in our present times.

Major Taylor, worlds greatest cyclist of incredible morals
I found this story of a black man in this early 1900 era extremely fascinating. His beliefs in fair play, extrodinary dedication to his faith and his hobby made him a role model for any and all to follow. his persistance in perfecting his beloved sport despite all of the negativity of this era, to me was unbelieveable. I read few books cover to cover but I have had the pleasure of reading this one 4 times. Ritchie has this book so well documented that anyone reading it would have no problem of becoming totally engrossed in it. A well done from me.

Excellent early history of cycling and of a forgotten icon
As Ritchie points out himself, it is surprising that it took a white englishman to compile such a comprehensive history of an American black man who was one of, if not the first black world champion in any sport and one of cycling's orginal superstars.

While the book makes for a good short history of the early years of cycling as a sport and how it has evolved, Taylor's transcends the sport of cycling and provides a rich glimpse into early 20th century racial issues, the development of transportation in the US, the twighlight of the Guilded Age and the onset of the Great Depression. Ritchie weaves all of these together in a compelling manner.

In hindsight, while the likes of Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson are often credited with being the original trailblazers for black athletes, they owe much to the brave steps taken by the now sadly little remembered Major Taylor. This book is long overdue.