A Flame of Pure Fire, Roger Kahn
A Flame of Pure Fire, Roger Kahn
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A Flame of Pure Fire
Jack Dempsey and the Roaring '20s

Author: Roger Kahn

Narrator: Kevin Yon

Unabridged: 14 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 07/15/2009

Synopsis

Jack Dempsey was perfectly suited to the time in which he fought, the time when the United States first felt the throb of its own overwhelming power. For eight years and two months after World War I, Dempsey, with his fierce good looks and matchless dedication to the kill, was heavyweight champion of the world. A Flame of Pure Fire is the extraordinary story of a man and a country growing to maturity in a blaze of strength and exuberance that nearly burned them to ash. Hobo, roughneck, fighter, lover, millionaire, movie star, and, finally, a gentleman of rare generosity and sincerity, Dempsey embodied an America grappling with the confusing demands of preeminence. Dempsey lived a life that touched every part of the American experience in the first half of the twentieth century. Roger Kahn, one of our preeminent writers about the human side of sport, has found in Dempsey a subject that matches his own manifold talents. A friend of Dempsey's and an insightful observer of the ways in which sport can measure a society's evolution, Kahn reaches a new and exciting stage in his acclaimed career with this book. In the story of a man John Lardner called "a flame of pure fire, at last a hero," Roger Kahn finds the heart of America.

About Roger Kahn

Roger Kahn is the award-winning author of The Boys of Summer, the classic bestseller about Jackie Robinson, the Dodgers and growing up in Brooklyn. He is the author of many other books whose subjects range from baseball to political activism, including Joe & Marilyn: A Memory of Love about the courtship and marriage of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe and A Flame of Pure Fire, A New York Times Notable Book of the Year 1999 about boxing great Jack Dempsey.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Arminius on January 14, 2009

Roger Kahn writes much of this book through interviews with Jack Dempsey. Jack Dempsey was not only the heavyweight boxing champion of most of the 1920’s but in all likelihood America’s first celebrity superstar. He is another of a long list of rags- to- riches American story. He grew up with a Dad......more

Goodreads review by Bruce on March 27, 2019

In a rangy raconteur like style Roger Kahn tells the story of Jack Dempsey and his times which were the Roaring 20s. Kahn digresses a lot in his narrative and talks a lot about other events of the 20s like the Scopes Trial, the Floyd Collins tragedy, Lucky Lindy, and presidents Warren Harding and Calv......more

Goodreads review by Peter on March 25, 2022

I was always interested in Jack Dempsey as my father met and him and supposedly my grandfather. Dr. Frank Corrigan was a 'friend' of the great boxer. What that actually meant I do not know, sadly. But I picked this Roger Kahn bio (with a strong dish of '20s history and culture mixed in) at a 'new' u......more

Goodreads review by Rickmasters on May 05, 2024

An enjoyable and well-written read, but it veers far too often in to the realm of hagiography to be truly engaging. Kahn can't seem to get over his bias and admiration for Dempsey to give a true, engaging portrait of the man, and instead feeds into his legend and almost saintly status. There's hints......more

Goodreads review by Dana on September 22, 2023

Fantastic book about Dempsey and the whole era of the 1920s. Although every quote I couldn’t help but read aloud in a vaudevillian/transatlantic accent.......more

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