A Terrible Splendor; Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played

New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, 2009. First Edition [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. [14], 321, [1] pages. Includes Author's Note, Acknowledgments, Notes, and Index. Chapters include The Gentleman of Wimbledon; Appeasement; An American Twist; "I'm Playing for My Life;'' No Man Living or Dead; and Miracles of Redemption. Includes 22 black and white photographs between pages 178 and 179. Marshall Jon Fisher graduated from Brandeis University. He worked as a sportswriter in Miami and received an M.A. in English at City College. From 1995 to 2002 he wrote for The Atlantic Monthly and his work has also appeared in Harper's, Discover, DoubleTake, and other publications. His book The Ozone Layer was selected by The New York Public Library as one of the best books of 1993. His book Tube: the Invention of Television was published in 1996. Strangers in the Night: a Brief History of Life on Other Worlds, was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the twenty-five Books to Remember of 1998. A Terrible Splendor was published to great acclaim. The Washington Post wrote, "Fisher has gotten hold of some mighty themes: war and peace, love and death, sports and savagery.... As the match enters its final set, all the narrative pieces lock together, and A Terrible Splendor becomes as engrossing as the contest it portrays." The Wall Street Journal found the book "rich and rewarding," and the San Francisco Chronicle called Splendor "enthralling...a gripping tale.... Wedding the nuances of a sport to broader historical events is a challenge, but Fisher pulls the task off with supreme finesse, at once revealing the triumph and tragedy of a remarkable tennis match." Before Federer versus Nadal, before Borg versus McEnroe, the greatest tennis match ever played pitted the dominant Don Budge against the seductively handsome Baron Gottfried von Cramm. This deciding 1937 Davis Cup match, played on the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon, was a battle of titans: the world's number one tennis player against the number two; America against Germany; democracy against fascism. For five superhuman sets, the duo's brilliant shotmaking kept the Centre Court crowd-and the world-spellbound.
But the match's significance extended well beyond the immaculate grass courts of Wimbledon. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the brink of World War II, one man played for the pride of his country while the other played for his life. Budge, the humble hard-working American who would soon become the first man to win all four Grand Slam titles in the same year, vied to keep the Davis Cup out of the hands of the Nazi regime. On the other side of the net, the immensely popular and elegant von Cramm fought Budge point for point knowing that a loss might precipitate his descent into the living hell being constructed behind barbed wire back home. Born into an aristocratic family, von Cramm was admired for his devastating good looks as well as his unparalleled sportsmanship. But he harbored a dark secret, one that put him under increasing Gestapo surveillance. And his situation was made even more perilous by his refusal to join the Nazi Party or defend Hitler. Desperately relying on his athletic achievements and the global spotlight to keep him out of the Gestapo's clutches, his strategy was to keep traveling and keep winning. A Davis Cup victory would make him the toast of Germany. A loss might be catastrophic. Watching the mesmerizingly intense match from the stands was von Cramm's mentor and all-time tennis superstar Bill Tilden-a consummate showman whose double life would run in ironic counterpoint to that of his German pupil. Set at a time when sports and politics were inextricably linked, A Terrible Splendor gives readers a courtside seat on that fateful day, moving gracefully between the tennis match for the ages and the dramatic events leading Germany, Britain, and America into global war. A book like no other in its weaving of social significance and athletic spectacle, this soul-stirring account is ultimately a tribute to the strength of the human spirit.