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Major Taylor

The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer

Andrew Ritchie

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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...

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.

Reviews

Reviews

As Andrew Ritchie's excellent biography demonstrates, [Taylor] became a cycling star not only through natural talent. He also had what one might call a force of dignity.

A point made by Mr. Ritchie... in this earnest and well-researched study is that Taylor, only the second black after the boxer George Dixon to win a world championship, hardly left a trace that he had passed.

Member of an oppressed race, hero in a nation with limited historical memory, this man, who had been so well known and whose life was so interesting, has been virtually forgotten. Ritchie's book admirably recaptures the story for us.

Revealing story of an intriguing and undeservedly forgotten professional sports star.

A fresh insight into the life of Major Taylor. It provides a fuller appreciation of the importance of cycling at the turn of the century when Major Taylor was literally the fastest man on earth.

About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
336
ISBN
9780801853036
Illustration Description
33 b&w illus.
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Prologue
Chapter 2. Early Guidance and Inspiration
Chapter 3. Bicycle Boom and Jim Crow
Chapter 4. Precocious Teenager, Colored Champion of America
Chapter 5. Rising Star
Chapter

Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Prologue
Chapter 2. Early Guidance and Inspiration
Chapter 3. Bicycle Boom and Jim Crow
Chapter 4. Precocious Teenager, Colored Champion of America
Chapter 5. Rising Star
Chapter 6. New Horizons, New Opposition
Chapter 7. The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World
Chapter 8. Champion of America at Last
Chapter 9. Superstar
Chapter 10. World Traveler and International Celebrity
Chapter 11. Comeback and Decline
Chapter 12. Difficult Adjustment
Chapter 13. Autobiography and Illness
Chapter 14. Chicago Tragedy
Author's Postscript
About the Photographs
Illustrations, Picture Sources, and Credits
Notes and Sources
Glossary of Bicycle Racing Terminology
Bibliography
Index

Author Bio
Featured Contributor

Andrew Ritchie, Ph.D.

Andrew Ritchie, a social and sports historian with a special interest in the early history of the bicycle and early photography, is the author of Bicycle Racing Records: A Statistical History of the Sport. A revised edition of his highly acclaimed social and technical history of cycling, The King of the Road, is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins.