About the Author

Thomas Hisser is a New York City attorney, Pulitzer Prize nominee, and the author of fourteen books, including "Missing, " which became the Academy Award-winning film, and "The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing."

Reviews

Draft dodger, rebel, poet and Third World supporter, boxing champ Muhammad Ali symbolizes different things to different people. To many an icon of black pride and empowerment, the Kentucky-born heavyweight is viewed by others as a separatist who embraced the divisive Black Muslim religion, by still others as the victim of a brutalizing sport. Diverse opinions are represented in this hefty, generally admiring compendium that seems less like an authorized biography (though it is) than a forum where rivals, trainers, friends, enemies, ex-wives, sportswriters and associates air their views. The roster of interviewees includes Archie Moore, Howard Cosell, Floyd Patterson, A. J. Liebling, Betty Shabazz (Malcolm X's widow), Ted Kennedy, Dick Gregory, Arthur Ashe and dozens of others. A feast for fans, this composite portrait bristles with insights, jabs and tributes. Hauser's books include The Black Lights . Photos. (June)

Los Angeles Sentinel This is by far the best book ever written about Muhammad Ali, and one of the best ever written about a celebrity-entertainment-controversial figure....It gets inside the real Muhammad.
New York Daily News Extensive and fascinating detail; first-rate....The triumph of the witness technique in biography may be judged complete.
New York Post Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times is a measuring stick for at least three decades of America -- who we were, how we changed and what we became.
Publishers Weekly A feast for fans, this composite portrait bristles with insights, jabs, and tributes.
The Boston Globe A magnificent book [about] a life that needs to be understood whether you care a whit about boxing or not.
The Nation A new generation is about to rediscover this exemplar of the Zeitgeist of the 1960s....The awesome pressures mortals can't imagine...were somehow converted into motivation by Ali. And this comprehensive, poignant and knowing book is sure to be a catalyst of his coming renaissance....Ali was bigger than boxing, and so is this book.
The New York Times Book Review The first definitive biography of...the boxer who transcended sports as no other athlete ever has.
The Sporting News Compelling...I doubt that we shall ever see a more comprehensive portrait of this extraordinary athlete.
Budd Schulberg Chicago Tribune How many Muhammad Ali's have we seen during his tempestuous ride through 30 years of roller-coaster American history? Ali rode that roller coaster with zest and pride and humor and class.
National Public Radio You're liable to find Muhammad Ali in the sports section of your bookstore, and that's certainly one place it belongs. Ali was a massive presence in sports for decades. But this book should be in the biography section as well, because like all good biography, it teaches us something about what it means to try to make a meaningful life in this slippery world. And it should be in the history section, because Ali has been a force in contemporary events second to no American.