Farnol, Jeffery – Famous Prize Fights

Description

Farnol, Jeffery ‘Famous Prize Fights’ 1928 1st edition. 260 pgs. Boston: Little Brown, and Company. Chapters include: Gladiators, Broughton v. Slack, Humprhies v. Mendoza, Johnson v. Perrins, Dutch Sam v. Tom Belcher, Gully v. Pearce, Tom Cribb v. Molineaux, Tom Spring v. Bill Neat, Jem Ward v. Simon Byrne, Bendigo v. Dea Burke, Tom Sayers v. William Perry, Sayers v. Heenan, Mace v. King, Sullivan v. Ryan, Peter Jackson v. Slavin, Corbett v. Sullivan, Fitzsimmons v. Corbett, Mitchell v. Corbett, Jefries v. Fitzsimmons, and Carpentier v. Dempsey. 26 illustrations. Good+ (5) $40 each.

Famous Prize Fights is the exact same 1928 boxing history book by Jeffery Farnol previously discussed. While it was published in the United Kingdom under the title Epics of the Fancy: A Vision of Old Fighters, it was released simultaneously in the United States by Little, Brown & Company under the title Famous Prize Fights: Or Epics of “The Fancy”.

The book serves as a historical retrospective dedicated to “The Fancy”—the subculture of die-hard fans, gamblers, and upper-class patrons who followed bare-knuckle prize fighting in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Farnol utilizes his experience as a popular romance and swashbuckler novelist to give the real-life historical accounts a dramatic, “novelistic embellishment”. He crafts vivid character portraits of the fighters alongside high-energy, round-by-round descriptions of their movements, fight locations, and stakes.

The 260-page book spans the timeline of boxing’s evolution, starting from classical “gladiators” and early English bare-knuckle pioneers before transitioning into the modern gloved era.

The book covers 19 major historical bouts, including: Daniel Mendoza vs. Richard Humphries (1780s–1790s): The legendary rivalry that helped popularize scientific boxing over raw brawling. Tom Cribb vs. Tom Molineaux (1810 & 1811): The historic and brutal international clashes between the English champion and the former American slave. Tom Sayers vs. John C. Heenan (1860): The massive, 42-round cross-Atlantic bare-knuckle fight that captivated both nations and ended in a chaotic crowd riot. James J. Corbett vs. John L. Sullivan (1892): The iconic bout under the Marquess of Queensberry rules where Corbett defeated the legendary Sullivan to usher in the modern era of gloved boxing. Jack Dempsey vs. Georges Carpentier (1921): The multi-million dollar “Fight of the Century” which served as the contemporary bookend to Farnol’s history. The U.S. edition contains 26 to 27 historical illustration plates depicting the pugilists and the scenic, rural locations where they fought.