Arthur Ashe: A Life Audiobook (Free)

A FRESH YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

A “thoroughly captivating biography” (The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA Chronicle) of American icon Arthur Ashe—the Jackie Robinson of guys’s rugby—a pioneering sportsman who, after breaking the color barrier, continued to become an influential civil rights activist and community intellectual.

Delivered in Richmond, Virginia, in 1943, by the age of eleven, Arthur Ashe was one of the state’s most talented black color rugby players. He became the 1st African American to play for the united states Davis about Arthur Ashe: A Lifestyle Cup team in 1963, and two years later he gained the NCAA singles tournament. In 1968, he increased to lots one national rank. Turning professional in 1969, he shortly became among the world’s most effective tennis stars, winning the Australian Open in 1970 and Wimbledon in 1975. After retiring in 1980, he offered four years as the united states Davis Glass captain and was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Popularity in 1985.

With this “deep, detailed, thoughtful chronicle” (The New York Times Book Review), Raymond Arsenault chronicles Ashe’s rise to stardom for the court. But much of the publication explores his off-court profession as a human being rights activist, philanthropist, broadcaster, writer, businessman, and celebrity. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ashe gained renown as an advocate for sportsmanship, education, racial equality, and the removal of apartheid in South Africa. But from 1979 on, he was compelled to deal with a serious heart condition that led to multiple surgeries and blood transfusions, one of which remaining him HIV-positive. After devoting the last ten weeks of his existence to AIDS activism, Ashe died in Feb 1993 at age forty-nine, departing an motivating legacy of dignity, integrity, and energetic citizenship.

Predicated on prodigious analysis, including more than one hundred interviews, Arthur Ashe places Ashe in the framework of both his time as well as the lengthy struggle of African-American sportsmen seeking equal opportunity and respect, and “will provide as the standard work on Ashe for some time” (Library Journal, starred review).