Gerard Gibbons
AS THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ROARS TO LIFE, EVERYONE HAS A DREAM, SO EVERYONE HAS A FIGHTFor Mike Gibbons, a penniless, bullied Irish American kid from the hardscrabble streets of Saint Paul, the fight is destiny. Beneath the light of Halley’s Comet in 1910, Mike and his younger brother, Tommy, vow to punch their way out of poverty and become champions of the outlawed prize ring.Guided by a priest, a firefighter, and a beloved sportswriter, and mentored by America’s first Black champions (Joe Gans, Jack Johnson, and Sam Langford), Mike pioneers a dazzling new style of scientific boxing, one that prizes strategy over brute force. It carries him from backroom brawls to Madison Square Garden and into the orbit of Harry Houdini, Tex Rickard, Theodore Roosevelt, Joseph Pulitzer, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. As his legend grows, he earns the name 'The St. Paul Phantom.'But Mike’s meteoric ascent, shadowed by romance and sacrifice, is fraught with conflict. Torn between his immigrant father’s bloody rebel past and his mother’s fear for his life, he falls for a fierce-willed suffragist who demands that he abandon the ring forever. His loyalty is tested further when his greatest rival turns out to be his own brother.Mike and Tommy’s daring quest unfolds against race riots, women’s rights, the birth of cinema, radio, and jazz, and the rise of organized crime, from famine-weary Ireland to quake-scarred San Francisco and the shores of Havana. Just as their dreams come within reach, World War I and the 1918 influenza pandemic upend the globe, calling them to trade gloves for uniforms and help strengthen America’s fighting forces.In the war’s aftermath, an aging Mike returns to the ring for one final shot at the world middleweight championship against a dangerous young fighter he once trained.The St. Paul Phantom is more than a boxing story. Lavishly illustrated with rare photographs and more than 75 original pen-and-ink illustrations, it is a sweeping historical epic of courage, faith, love, brotherhood, and redemption: a powerful true story that illuminates the American experience and the common ground that binds us together.Step into the ring and order your copy now. 6
