Smokin' Joe : the life of Joe Frazier
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-361) and index.

History will remember the rivalry of Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali as one for the ages. A trilogy of extraordinary fights that transcended the world of sports and crossed into a sociocultural drama that divided the country. Joe Frazier was a much more complex figure than just his rivalry with Ali would suggest. In this riveting and nuanced portrayal, acclaimed sportswriter Mark Kram, Jr. unlinks Frazier from Ali and for the first time gives a full-bodied accounting of Frazier's life. A journey that began as the youngest of thirteen children packed in small farmhouse, encountering the bigotry and oppression of the Jim Crow South, and continued with his voyage north at age fifteen to develop as a fighter in Philadelphia.

A trilogy of fights between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali transcended the world of sports and crossed into a sociocultural drama that divided the country. Joe Frazier was a much more complex figure than his rivalry with Ali would suggest. Kram gives a full-bodied accounting of Frazier's life, a journey that began as the youngest of thirteen children packed in small farmhouse, encountering the bigotry and oppression of the Jim Crow South, up to his retirement in 1981-- and beyond. -- adapted from jacket.