Though his tax difficulties have eradicated all his assets…Joe Louis is still a man of great pride. He refused the money that hundreds of citizens sent him to help with his Government debt, although he still owes the Government thousands, and could have used the cash. Last year Joe Louis earned less than $10,000, most of it from refereeing wrestling matches (he earns between $750 and $1,000 a night), and from endorsements or appearances. The last big money he made was the $100,000-a-year guarantee he got in 1956 for wrestling. He won all his matches…but his career ended not long afterward when the 300-pound cowboy Rocky Lee accidentally stepped on Louis’ chest one night, cracked one of his ribs and damaged some of his heart muscles.
The story that Tom Wolfe cited as the beginning of New Journalism, Gay Talese’s Joe Louis: The King As A Middle Aged Man is a vivid, unflinching portrait of a fading American hero, written with a literary style and panache as yet unseen, by a young writer who went on to change the history of journalism forever.
Joe Louis: The King As A Middle Aged Man was originally published in Esquire, June 1962.
Cover design by Adil Dara.
The story that Tom Wolfe cited as the beginning of New Journalism, Gay Talese’s Joe Louis: The King As A Middle Aged Man is a vivid, unflinching portrait of a fading American hero, written with a literary style and panache as yet unseen, by a young writer who went on to change the history of journalism forever.
Joe Louis: The King As A Middle Aged Man was originally published in Esquire, June 1962.
Cover design by Adil Dara.
