Gerald EarlyGerald Early is Professor of English and African American Studies at Washington University, St Louis. He has written about boxing since the early 1980s. His book, The Culture of Bruising (1994), won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for criicism. He also edited The Muhammad Ali Reader (1998) and Body Language: Writers on Sports (1998). His essays have appeared several times in the Best American Essays series. Read More Read Less