Queen of the Court
The Many Lives of Tennis Legend Alice Marble
74 of 74 copies available
Given a tennis racket at thirteen, she took to the sport immediately, rising to the top with a powerful, aggressive serve-and-volley style unseen in women's tennis. A champion at the height of her fame in the late 1930s, she also designed a clothing line and sang as a performer. World War II derailed her amateur tennis career, but her life off the court was even more eventful. Perhaps her greatest legacy lies in her successful efforts to persuade the all-white US Lawn Tennis Association to change its policy and allow African American star Althea Gibson to compete for the US championship in 1950, thereby breaking tennis's color barrier.
In two memoirs, Marble showed herself to be an at-times unreliable narrator of her own life, which Madeleine Blais navigates skillfully, especially Marble's claims of having been a spy during World War II. In Queen of the Court, Blais recaptures a glittering life story.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
August 15, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9798350808773
- File size: 455398 KB
- Duration: 15:48:44
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from June 12, 2023
Blais (To the New Owners), a journalism professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, serves up an enthralling biography of pioneering tennis player Alice Marble (1913–1990). Born in rural Beckwourth, Calif., and raised in San Francisco, Marble took up tennis in high school and quickly mastered the sport. Blais offers a detailed overview of Marble’s career—from winning junior tournaments to nabbing singles and doubles titles at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 1939 to going pro in 1941—but the narrative is equally exciting when describing Marble’s endeavors off the court, which included overseeing a line of comics about notable historical women and pursuing a singing career. More consequentially, she spoke out in 1950 to support ending racial segregation in tennis so that phenom Althea Gibson would be permitted to compete in the U.S. Open. Blais’s handling of Marble’s spurious claim to have served as a spy during WWII showcases the author’s dogged research and empathetic analysis, pointing out travel records that contradict Marble’s story and suggesting that it may have stemmed from the former champion’s yearning to hold the public’s attention as her star power declined. This will likely stand as the definitive account of Marble’s life.
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