Promotional Information

Revealing story of an intriguing and undeservedly forgotten professional sports star. -- Greg LeMond A fresh insight into the life of Major Taylor. It provides a fuller appreciation of the importance of cycling at the turn of the century when Major Taylor was literally the fastest man on earth. -- Arthur Ashe

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Prologue
Chapter 2. Early Guidance and Inspiration
Chapter 3. Bicycle Boom and Jim Crow
Chapter 4. Precocious Teenager, Colored Champion of America
Chapter 5. Rising Star
Chapter 6. New Horizons, New Opposition
Chapter 7. The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World
Chapter 8. Champion of America at Last
Chapter 9. Superstar
Chapter 10. World Traveler and International Celebrity
Chapter 11. Comeback and Decline
Chapter 12. Difficult Adjustment
Chapter 13. Autobiography and Illness
Chapter 14. Chicago Tragedy
Author's Postscript
About the Photographs
Illustrations, Picture Sources, and Credits
Notes and Sources
Glossary of Bicycle Racing Terminology
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Andrew Ritchie, a social and sports historian with a special interest in the early history of the bicycle and early photography, is the author of Bicyle Racing Records: A Statistical History of the Sport. A revised editon of his highly acclaimed social and technical history of cycling, The King of the Road, is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins.

Reviews

As Andrew Ritchie's excellent biography demonstrates, [Taylor] became a cycling star not only through natural talent. He also had what one might call a force of dignity. -- Tim Hilton Times Literary Supplement A point made by Mr. Ritchie... in this earnest and well-researched study is that Taylor, only the second black after the boxer George Dixon to win a world championship, hardly left a trace that he had passed. -- Samuel Abt New York Times Book Review Member of an oppressed race, hero in a nation with limited historical memory, this man, who had been so well known and whose life was so interesting, has been virtually forgotten. Ritchie's book admirably recaptures the story for us. -- Elliott J. Gorn Journal of American History