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Could you guess who "Boxing's Brainiest Champ" was? It was Gene Tunney. A little over two years ago, a bio of Tunney came out, "Tunney: Boxing's Brainiest Champ," by Jack Cavanaugh. This is about the only biography of Tunney ever written, aside from two by Tunney. They are not very revealing but may be the only autobiographies of a famous athlete actually written without a ghost.
Someone named Paul Beston was going to write a book about both Tunney and Dempsey, but gave it up. One reason was that Gene Tunney's family will not cooperate with writers unless the book is authorized by the family. In a review of Cavanaugh's book in the February 2007 The American Spectator, Beston wrote:
"In his new biography, Jack Cavanaugh proves that Tunney was a defensive specialist in the boxing ring and out. Cavanaugh's book, readable and well researched, puts us in the ring with Tunney but never allows us to get within a whisker of him. It's a frustrating book, especially given the promise with which it arrived: to tell the story of the forgotten man Cavanaugh rightly describes as "the most unique heavyweight champion of all time." That's an understatement. There aren't many athletes in any sport, before or since, comparable to Tunney."
Beston also writes:
"If you were told that an Irish immigrant's son growing up in turn of the century New York would serve in the Marines in World War I, go on to win the world heavyweight title while becoming a self-educated man of culture, live another half-century in which he married a Carnegie heiress, befriended men like George Bernard Shaw and Thornton Wilder, lectured on Shakespeare at Yale, served in the Navy in World War II, attained directorship of numerous corporations, and fathered a U.S. Senator, you would probably say that has the makings of a pretty good story. Gene Tunney was even remarkable in death: his gravestone makes no mention of his boxing career, citing his service to America in two great wars. It's a touch of majesty almost unainaginable among today's athletes."
Another point about the book is that it is almost as much about Jack Dempsey as about Gene Tunney. Dempsey has always been easy to write about.
Someone named Paul Beston was going to write a book about both Tunney and Dempsey, but gave it up. One reason was that Gene Tunney's family will not cooperate with writers unless the book is authorized by the family. In a review of Cavanaugh's book in the February 2007 The American Spectator, Beston wrote:
"In his new biography, Jack Cavanaugh proves that Tunney was a defensive specialist in the boxing ring and out. Cavanaugh's book, readable and well researched, puts us in the ring with Tunney but never allows us to get within a whisker of him. It's a frustrating book, especially given the promise with which it arrived: to tell the story of the forgotten man Cavanaugh rightly describes as "the most unique heavyweight champion of all time." That's an understatement. There aren't many athletes in any sport, before or since, comparable to Tunney."
Beston also writes:
"If you were told that an Irish immigrant's son growing up in turn of the century New York would serve in the Marines in World War I, go on to win the world heavyweight title while becoming a self-educated man of culture, live another half-century in which he married a Carnegie heiress, befriended men like George Bernard Shaw and Thornton Wilder, lectured on Shakespeare at Yale, served in the Navy in World War II, attained directorship of numerous corporations, and fathered a U.S. Senator, you would probably say that has the makings of a pretty good story. Gene Tunney was even remarkable in death: his gravestone makes no mention of his boxing career, citing his service to America in two great wars. It's a touch of majesty almost unainaginable among today's athletes."
Another point about the book is that it is almost as much about Jack Dempsey as about Gene Tunney. Dempsey has always been easy to write about.
urple;