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Major: A Black Athlete, a White Era, and the Fight to Be the World's Fastest Human Being | 
 enlarge | Author: Todd Balf
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 117008
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 0307236587
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.6092
EAN: 9780307236586
ASIN: 0307236587
Publication Date: February 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
At the turn of the 20th century, hundreds of handsome, lightning-fast racers won the hearts and minds of a bicycling-crazed public. Scientists studied them, newspapers glorified them, and millions of dollars in purse money was awarded to them. Major Taylor aimed to be the fastest of them all. A prominent black man at a time when such a thing was deemed scandalous, his mounting victories, high moral virtue, and bulletlike riding style made him a target for ridicule from the press and sabotage by the white riders who shared the track with him.
Taylor’s most formidable and ruthless opponent—a man nicknamed the “Human Engine”—was Floyd McFarland. One man was white, one black; one from a storied Virginia family, the other descended from Kentucky slaves; one celebrated as a hero, one trying to secure his spot in a sport he dominated. The only thing they had in common was the desire to be named the fastest man alive. Their rivalry riveted first America, and then the world. Finally, in 1904, both men headed to Australia for a much-anticipated title match to decide, beyond dispute, who would claim the coveted title.
Major is the gripping story of a superstar nobody saw coming—a classic underdog, aided by an unlikely crew: a disgraced fight promoter, a broken ex-racer, and a poor upstate girl from New York who wanted to be a queen. It is also the account of a fierce rivalry that would become an archetypal tale of white versus black in the 20th century. Most of all, it is the tale of our nation’s first black sports celebrity—a man who transcended the handicaps of race at the turn of the century to reach the stratosphere of fame.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Is There Really An Editor At Crown Publishers? July 7, 2008
If my comments save at least one person from wasting money and time on this junk, they've been worth the effort. I'd also like to add that I have nothing personal against Todd Balf. I hope he lives to be one hundred and five years old, and is healthy and happy the whole time.
In 1988, Andrew Ritchie published an excellent biography of Marshall "Major" Taylor ("Major Taylor: The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer"). Ritchie's book is greater than the current book by Todd Balf in every way. It is still in print, and you should buy it instead. It is researched more thoroughly and accurately and is an infinitely superior piece of writing. It also contains more than three times as many photographs than Balf's unnecessary lump of inked-up paper.
Todd Balf's successful career illustrates the depressing state of contemporary publishing. Being a professional writer no longer requires the ability to write, and publishing houses of today don't seem to employ editors. Balf appears to have attended all the social consciousness courses wherever it was he went to college, but he must have skipped out on the English grammar and composition classes (if they had any). His bad writing is so distracting, it makes enjoyment of the book nearly impossible.
Balf is not merely a lousy writer. He also is afflicted with a terrible case of White Man's Guilt. He is fixated on race to the point of repeatedly discussing the tone and texture of Taylor's skin (and the skin of Taylor's wife, Daisy). He imagines pathetic scenes such as Daisy brooding over the eradication of southwest Africans by German settlers in 1904, a tragic but irrelevant event of which we have no way of knowing she was even aware. Nearly every white person mentioned in the book is a loathsome racist, and even the "white picket fence" of suburbia is dragged out as an icon of Caucasian evil. In contrast, Andrew Ritchie, in his well-written 1988 book about Taylor, discusses racism almost as much as Balf, but reports it in a straightforward manner, without Balf's beard-and-glasses university-campus shrillness. Ritchie presents Taylor as a great athlete and a man of strong character who was a victor, while Balf must keep him a victim.
Balf also reaches deep into the fool's bag of specious psychoanalysis, attributing elaborate, unlikely motives to long-dead people he never met. Taylor's purportedly profound reasons for sprinting at the finish of races, the theoretical identity crisis that made him write his father's name as an emergency contact in his pocket notebook, and Floyd McFarland's apparently insidious motives for taking his pet dog along on a trip are among the subjects that are painstakingly dissected with in-depth psychobabble. Is it possible Taylor sprinted to go fast and win races, or that he just wanted a relative called if he had an accident, or that McFarland merely liked having his dog around? Balf can't abide any such simple notions; nothing resembling his pscho-hooey is to be found in Andrew Ritchie's biography of Taylor.
Then there are Balf's awkward similes: "...like the Holy Ghost rushing in to lay a revivalist out cold," (p. 112), and "Blood poured forth like the fountain at Rockefeller Center." (p. 199) are two examples of silly high school freshman-style writing that represent many. It might not be strictly incorrect, but it certainly feels ill-fitting to read a simile comparing a man's bleeding to death in 1902 to a structure that didn't exist until 1934.
Finally, there is Balf's ridiculous discussion of the 2002 Little 500 bicycle race at Indiana University as an illustration of contemporary racism comparable to what Taylor faced a century earlier. The 2002 protests were over two issues. The first was that Team Major Taylor (TMT) was included in the event without having to go through the same qualifying races as all of the other teams, while a team that had properly qualified was excluded to make room for them. The second was that it was believed one of TMT's riders had previously raced as a professional, which is against Little 500 rules. Balf ignores all of this, and states that the other teams protested because TMT was made up of black riders. The fact that there have been no protests in subsequent years, when TMT has gone through the proper qualifying procedures and has only had riders with unquestionable amateur credentials, proves that Balf has chosen an empty example.
There are those who will disagree with me about what I have discussed above. Many people today share Todd Balf's peculiar type of social and racial obsessions, and might even enjoy a dumb metaphor or simile (or ten or twenty). Well, that's all subjective. They're welcome to believe whatever they can swallow, and can hate me all they want; I'll manage without their love. But then there are his egregious errors of grammar, word usage, logic, and facts--bad writing that cannot be supported objectively and for which there is no excuse. I have listed several examples below for the entertainment of casual readers who haven't yet imploded with PC righteousness, and for the convenience of anyone at Crown Publishers who might want to make corrections for the unfortunately unavoidable paperback edition.
"J.K. Starling" [The 19th century bicycle innovator's name was Starley.] (p. 20)
"In 1860, oil was discovered in Wirt County. It was the same year Fort Sumter was occupied by Union troops..." [Fort Sumter was a Union fort. It was occupied by Confederate troops, in 1861.] (p. 35)
"But it was more than just his Amazonian size..." [The noun Amazon and adjective Amazonian refer to mythical females.] (p. 64)
"Harry Sanger" [The inventor of a shaft-driven bicycle was Sager.] (p. 107)
"Taylor had a 23-pound bike and a 108-gear inch sprocket" [This refers to the Sager, a shaft-driven bicycle. Shaft-driven bicycles do not have sprockets.] (p. 107)
"He dashed off a letter to the Stanley brothers in Boston and anxiously awaited their reply [in 1898]. The evolving appliance would run through a host of names, but motorcycle would eventually stick." [Motorcycles had existed since the 1860s. The first motorcycles available for purchase by the public were sold in 1894. The word "motorcycle" was in use at least as early as 1896.] (p. 110)
"At season's end, McFarland would have strode aboard a westbound train ... Out of the window, he would have seen sights hurdling toward him that only a few years earlier were the province of explorers--the Holy Cross Wilderness in Colorado, the rushing Yellowstone River, and the soaring big walls at Yosemite." [Hurtling, not "hurdling". And I don't know about Holy Cross or the Yellowstone, but "the soaring big walls at Yosemite" have never been seen from any train window.] (p. 131)
"Taylor's heroics at Philadelphia had whetted the appetite for more speed-busting efforts--people wanted to know where the barrier lie." [lay, not "lie"] (pp. 132-133)
"It was circular, not oval like other tracks ... `Now spurt,' cried Munger, as they approached the final turn." [If the track was a circle, there was no "final turn."] (pp. 139-140)
"He was proud of his star turn and seemed to enjoy the experience, sharing the stage with Parisian chartreuses..." [Chanteuses. Chartreuse is a color.] (p. 162)
"Daisy Morris' adult life..." [incorrect form of possessive] (p. 164)
"...Daisy Morris's home." [correct form of possessive--a gold star for Todd!] (p. 165)
"She grew up in a small rented wood frame with her widowed grandmother..." [They lived in a frame?] (p. 165)
"...the covetous camera lens fixing on his body..." [The lens was covetous? Since the photos show Taylor from head to foot, how can we know the (covetous) lens was fixed on his body?] (p. 173)
"In the second heat Taylor took a different tact and led on the final straightaway..." [Taylor was a polite fellow, but this should be tack, not "tact".] (p. 175)
"A French newspaperman noted that it had discovered that Taylor's mother..." [It? Was the reporter a robot?] (p. 179)
[Concerning a voyage from San Francisco to Sydney] "He had 15,000 nautical miles to wonder if he'd be welcomed or chased away." [The distance is about 6,400 nautical miles.] (p. 205)
"...the native Aborigines..." [redundant] (p. 206)
"...sank ships and blew homes into a boiling Tasmanian sea." [Tasman Sea] (p. 208)
"...Taylor was already on his short sprinting form and blasting by others as if standing still..." [Sounds like Taylor was standing still. Hard to do if he was "blasting by."] (pp. 208-209)
[In a discussion of sports events of 1903] "Basketball seeded itself [bizarre metaphor] in Springfield, Massachusetts, and found a home in hundreds of newly-built YMCA gymnasiums." [Basketball was invented at the YMCA gymnasium at Springfield in 1891.] (p. 218)
"In yet another fiery immolation, Elkes died instantly." [Fiery? The crash was caused by a flat tire.] (p. 218)
[Referring again to the distance between Australia and the United States] "Taylor and McFarland were some 15,000 miles from where it had started." [From San Francisco, their departure point in the U.S., it's less than half that far.] (p. 233)
"Taylor went straight to the track and prepared for the evening races ... Normally Daisy would've sat in the shade of the classically carved, arched grandstand, out of the brutal southern Australian sun..." [Brutal sun in the evening?] (pp. 236-237)
"Lance Armstrong, who was ushered into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame the same year that Taylor was, in 1996..." [The USBHOF official website indicates Taylor was inducted in 1989, not 1996. As of June 2008 Armstrong had not yet been inducted. These facts were confirmed during a personal communication with Vincent Menci, curator of the USBHOF, on June 2, 2008.] (p. 249)
"Billy Brady didn't die, but became William A. Brady..." [He is now 145 years old.] (p. 250)
"The populous social movements that rose during the Gilded Age...[populist, not "populous"] (p. 277)
[In a discussion of races held in the year 1900] "The Madison Square Garden Six-Day that closed the millennium..." [Astoundingly, Balf demonstrates that he doesn't know the difference between a century and a millennium.] (p. 282)
"...and finally, thanks to my editor, Kristin Kiser, who in spite of all the things, personal and professional, that occupied her time, she managed to make me feel that this was a project she was going to see through and not let up on." [In this tormented sentence near the end, Balf reveals that he has an imaginary friend; after reading this mess of a book, I can't believe Ms. Kiser really exists. If she does, I'm available to show her how to edit the second printing, if there has to be one. My fee would be reasonable.] (p. 293)
 Difficult to review. June 3, 2008
I'm glad I read this book. As a life-long bicyclist that includes fast road bikes and some racing, I was interested in- and sympathetic to- this historical speculation.
Half's thesis presents an incredible influence the bicycle had in the development of personal transport technology and social structure in the late 19th century. It is an exciting speculation that is supported with well-researched data. Coupled with that is extraordinary extrapolation of implication. In other words, the data are over-interpreted.
Yet, Half's perspective is worth a listen. His story can be put into the annuls of any sporting debate-- Who was the best in sport 'z'; Is sport 'i' better than sport 'j'; If 'x' met 'y' in the ring, who would win...; What is the significance of event 'a' in terms of social significance, and what was in the minds of the players? Etc.
This is a fantastic story in black & white. Literally. Good vs. Evil. Integrity. Winning vs. losing.
Three stars? I was a bit uncomfortable with the writing. Pompous vocabulary, in places; journalistic style & license; biased objective; and fantasy.
Keep all this in mind. The story is historically exaggerated. Yet there is within it truth, and what is the truth? Truth is what is recorded in history. Is truth more important than what we make of it?
Here is a fresh perspective. Enjoy the read. I'm glad I read it.
A pleasant, but light, read May 30, 2008
There is nothing wrong with Balf's new book, and for someone not familiar with either Major Taylor or the history of American bicycle racing, it is an interesting, pleasant read. However, it simply is not as good, nor as in-depth, as Andrew Ritchie's previous (and still in print) "Major Taylor: The Extraordinary Life . . ." As good as Ritchie's book is, it, in turn, is still not as good as getting your hands on a copy of Taylor's own autobiography "The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World," either in the original edition at a mind-blowingly expensive cost, or in a current print-on-demand edition at a still irksome cost.
Taylor had an iron will and an unbreakable spirit; was a clean-liver in an era when the average professional was a brawler and a dissipate; he could be a world-class whiner; he was obsessive and paranoid. He called his most bitter rivals bigots and rubes; they shot back that he was a professional scab and a self-rightous sob sister. The truth, of course, was somewhere in the middle. It's hard for both Balf and Ritchie to discuss the less heroic parts of Taylor's personality, but these come out in his own writing. You can learn a lot about Taylor by reading Balf and Ritchie; on the other hand, you can learn OF Taylor only by reading his own words.
 Good history, questionable editorializing April 30, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I found the book to be well written and well-researched from a historical perspective. The book was enlightening, not only regarding cycling history but also cultural history.
The major flaw in the book was in the epilogue regarding the Little 500 bike race at Indiana University. The author made the assumption that the 32 other teams in the Little 500 were protesting because Team Major Taylor had black riders. He did not seem to understand that the protest may have been in regard to a team being added to the race that did not qualify in the time trials thus depriving a qualifying team of a place in the race. Team Major Taylor qualified 6th in the 2008 race and finished 2nd. No protests took place. This was a minor portion of the book, but does cast some doubt that the remainder of the book was as thoroughly researched as it might have been. Was Floyd McFarland as really as bad as the author wrote? Or did the author embellish some of the facts to make a book?
Todd Balf is an excellent writer with remarkable insight. Read the book, skip the epilogue. The author's assessment of early 20th century race relations is insightful; his attempt to extend this to the early 21st century comes up short.
Victorian Fury April 1, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I was wandering through the bookstore when this intense yellow cover with a crouched black rider (Marshall "Major" Taylor) caught my eye. I had an idea who Major was -- an early black cyclist -- but had no idea how great and popular he was in his heyday.
The book succeeded for me on several levels. First, Todd Balf has done his historian's work, culling from many sources, including newspapers, period magazines, diaries, etc, to give the reader a deep, balanced view the lost work of 90th century track racing. He begins with the bicycle itself, from its mechanical evolution to its impressive impact on society. Then it is on to racing. I found this world utterly riveting, with such events as the 6 day races in Madison Square Garden, where racers battled one another as well as sleep deprivation over 6 days straight, ending with spectacular crashes, hallucinations, and death, or the match races set against huge grandstands in every major American city, or the speed record attempts where riders would draft behind locomotives or other large machines, often getting crushed in the process. It was a frenetic time, the nexus of Victorian sensibility, the rise of the machine, urbanization, racism, the rise of professional sports.
Out of all this emerges the character of Marshall "Major" Taylor, a black superstar who rises to the pinnacle of the sport. To me Taylor was less interesting than the milieux he was apart of. The author works hard to create a narrative structure of good vs evil, with Taylor on one side and McFarland (his nemesis) and the rest of white America on the other. Although the story is ostensibly true, the author spends too much time stoking this reality for dramatic effect - choosing to make the "Race" issue crackle on every page instead of the issue of the race itself. After a couple of hundred pages Race becomes a shoe the author is beating us over the head with. Also more material should have been drawn from Taylor's autobiography in order to give a richer portrait into the mind of the man. Along this line, after the climax race, the narrative is almost dropped. A gaping hole is left about what Taylor did with the rest of his life after racing.
Overall, the book's strength lies in its vivid depiction of a long-gone era. The climatic race is very cinematic and inspiring. Marshall Taylor emerges as a truly heroic athlete who rightly deserves more notoriety; this books should help remedy his place in the pantheon of sporting legends.
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