SIGNED BY 19 SPORTS FIGURES AND CELEBRITIES OF THE THIRTIES, FORTIES AND FIFTIES, INCLUDING JACK DEMPSEY, GENE TUNNEY, JACKIE GLEASON, JOHNNY WEISSMULLER, ED SULLIVAN AND GENE SARAZEN
RICE, Grantland. The Tumult and the Shouting. New York: A.S. Barnes, circa 1954. Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. $2500.
First edition, fifth printing, of the great sportswriter's autobiography, signed 19 personalities, including Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Jackie Gleason, Johnny Weissmuller, and Gene Sarazen.
Enthusiastic sports journalist Grantland Rice was known as "the spectator's spectator." "He helped build the reputations of such figures as baseball's Babe Ruth, golf's Bobby Jones, and football's Red Grange. Rice became a celebrity in his own right" (DAB). "Friendships with many of the famous sports figures of his generation permitted Rice an easy access to his subjects that was considered unusual at the end of the 20th century. His columns and memoirs were spotted with references to golf games and casual conversations with stars such as New York Giants pitcher Christy Mathewson and heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey… Major newspapers continued to subscribe to his column in the 1950s, and frequent tributes, such as his 1948 appearance on the radio program 'This Is Your Life,' indicated the degree to which Rice himself had become a sports legend. Rice worked up until the day that he died in New York City" (ANB). Rice died before this book was published. The first edition was published in 1954. Faint evidence of bookplate removal.
Book with light soiling to endpapers (including signed page), only most minor rubbing and soiling to cloth. Dust jacket with only light wear to extremities. An extremely good signed copy.