Diamond, Wilfred – Blood, Sweat, and Jack Dempsey

Description

Diamond, Wilfred ‘Blood, Sweat, and Jack Dempsey’ 1953 1st ed. 127 pages. Very good condition hardcover in a price-clipped dust jacket that is missing a 3/4″ chip in the lower rear cover, else good.

The 1953 first edition hardcover of Blood, Sweat and Jack Dempsey by Wilfrid Diamond is a 127-page compact biography published in Kingswood, Surrey, UK by The World’s Work (1913) Ltd. (with printing handled by Richard Clay). Written by a prolific mid-century boxing writer, this fast-paced volume serves as an engaging and highly dramatic retro-biography of the former heavyweight champion.

Book Details:
• Author: Wilfrid Diamond (often spelled Wilfred Diamond on certain catalog records)
• Publisher: The World’s Work Ltd., Kingswood
• Publication Year: 1953 (First Edition)
• Format: Hardcover 12mo (measuring roughly 19cm by 13cm), originally bound in red cloth boards with title lettering across the spine, issued with a colorful pictorial dust jacket.
• Length: 127 pages (typically featuring an additional page of publisher advertisements at the rear).

Content & Overview:
• The Hobo Survivor: True to its gritty title, Diamond emphasizes the extreme hardships of Dempsey’s early existence. The book tracks his formative years spent as a desperate hobo riding the rods underneath trains, surviving Western mining camps, and fighting for meager pocket money in raw saloon brawls.
• Championship Glory: The narrative colorfully explores his meteoric ascent to global fame, mapping out how the “Manassa Mauler” refined his signature style of non-stop, aggressive punching to capture and hold the World Heavyweight Title.
• Statistical Appendix: A highly valued inclusion for sports historians of the era, the volume concludes with a dedicated appendix thoroughly documenting Dempsey’s career results, official ring record, and fight statistics.