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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} A Terrible Splendor Three Extraordinary Men a World Poised for War and the Greatest Tennis Match Eve A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men a World Poised for War and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played by Marshall Jon Fisher. Named Best Tennis Book of the Year by HuffingtonPost.com Named No. 1 Book for Holiday Giving by the Bay Area Reporter. Click here for Marshall Fisher's tour schedule. Hear Marshall Jon Fisher on the radio: A German edition was published in July by Osburg Verlag. Read the New York Times blog by Harvard tennis coach Andrew Rueb, which started a long conversation. Another Times blog compared 1937 and 2007 "greatest-ever" matches (and books). Excerpted in the April issue of Tennis magazine (print version only). Peter Bodo blogs about the book at Tennis.com. Waves of Acclaim for A Terrible Splendor. “ TENSE, TRAGIC, BEAUTIFULLY TOLD, AND IMMENSELY ENJOYABLE. M arshall Fisher has masterfully woven the story of Europe on the edge of war, a man pursued by the Gestapo, and America on the rise into the tale of the greatest tennis match of the century. ” — Atul Gawande. “ A REMARKABLE BOOK . told in fascinating detail. ” —Fox News. “ P rovides a welcome reminder of how a great athlete, in dire circumstances, can rise to extraordinary levels—both in his game and in his life. ” — Newsweek. “ A FINE BOOK , in the new tradition of solidly researched sports writing. Marshall Jon Fisher has found a remarkable story and has told it well. ” — The Washington Times. “ ENGROSSING . Marshall Jon Fisher captured two memorable characters, illuminated their historical and cultural milieus, and kept me in delicious suspense. I'm grateful for my ignorance of tennis history, since if I'd known the outcome of the 1937 Davis Cup match before I read this engrossing book, I might not have sat on the edge of my seat and bitten my nails as Don Budge and Gottfried von Cramm served and volleyed. ” —Anne Fadiman. “For his smashing serve and spectacular rallies between sports history and political drama, game, set, and match go to Marshall Jon Fisher’s A Terrible Splendor .” — Vanity Fair “ ABSORBING . Fisher depicts t he intersection of their careers amid the simmering world conflict, juxtaposing history and sport. By illuminating the terrible shadows of a time, Fisher shows that hyperbole may be fleeting but champions are not .” —Liz Robbins, New York Times Book Review “ Fisher hits on a nonfiction storyline that would make a screenwriter squeal. reads like a novel. While expertly weaving world history, the varied backgrounds of each of the men involved in the Davis Cup, and the details of what he considers the greatest match ever played, he keeps the story moving and the pages turning. ” — Berkshire Eagle. “Offers richly detailed portraits as the story moves from one nail-biting set to the next against a backdrop of improbably high personal and political stakes.” — Boston Globe “ TRANSFORMATIVE . so much more than a tennis story … may well stay with you forever … Ranks right up with Gordon Forbes’ A Handful of Summers and John McPhee’s Levels of the Game as one of the most memorable books about tennis — and more importantly, the human spirit — that you may ever read. ” — TennisWeek.com. “For those of us who believe that tennis is a metaphor for life, here at last in this marvelous narrative is proof, served up on the rackets of Budge and Von Cramm. A Terrible Splendor is a wonderful account of a time of great historical drama , with the world on the brink of war, and everything resting, or so it would seem, on getting the ball back over the net just one more time.” — Abraham Verghese , author of The Tennis Partner and Cutting for Stone. “ A LITERARY MASTERPIECE . Mar shall Fisher has turned a tennis court masterpiece — American Don Budge overcoming German Gottfried von Cramm to decide the 1937 Davis Cup — into a litera ry masterpiece . Blending their lives with the darkening times, Fisher illuminates bygone cultures in the fascinating tale of a July afternoon in London." — Bu d Collins. “ A LITERARY TRIUMPH . Fisher masterfully weaves biography, history, and sports—and sex and romance and the drums of war—into a thoroughly riveting narrative . full of ironic twists and astonishing revelations .” — Scott Stossel , author of Sarge: The Life and Times of Sargent Shriver. “ RICHLY DETAILED AND METICULOUSLY RESEARCHED . It’s taken almost seventy-five years for a sufficiently gifted writer to re- create the magnificence of that event, but it’s been worth every moment of the wait.” —Peter Bodo , senior editor , Tennis magazine “ THIS IS SPORTS HISTORY AT ITS FINEST AND MOST THOROUGH. there could be no more disparate characters in any sport than Big Bill Tilden, Don Budge and Baron Gottfried von Cramm. Marshall Jon Fisher has done a marvelous job of weaving the threads of these three lives together at a time when the world was coming apart and at the moment when Budge and von Cramm were playing in the most important — if not the best — tennis match ever. — Frank Deford, author of Bill Tilden: The Triumphs and the Tragedy. “A THOROUGHLY RIVETING account of intense human endeavor [and an] astonishing, inspiring story of a sports hero who was not merely a heroic tennis player, but a genuinely heroic man. ” — The Commercial Dispatch (Columbus, Mississippi) “ Fisher tells a fascinating, true story [that] puts readers on the scene at Wimbledon. Fisher braids not just the stories of the players themselves — Budge and Cramm together with the tale of former world champion 'Big Bill' Tilden — but also the covert world of gay Nazi Germany and the significance of the American-German matchup on the cusp of war. ” — The Star Tribune (Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN) “ A Terrible Splendor is not only ONE OF THE BEST-EVER BOOKS ON TENNIS but is sure to be ONE OF THE BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR. Marshall Jon Fisher delivers A SMASHING ACCOUNT of the game’s first international superstars as they compete against each other, the impending violence of Nazism, and their own inner demons. The experience is like watching Chariots of Fire —but this time in an arena of grass courts, white balls, and wooden racquets. ” —Robert Atwan, editor, The Best American Essays 2008. “ FASCINATING . A Terrible Splendor offers a compelling, page-turning portrait of a man literally playing for his life. Never in the sport of tennis have the stakes been so high. With graceful prose, a flair for detail, and a novelist’s eye for character, Marshall Fisher lures us into this unexpectedly layered tale of the greatest tennis match ever played. ” — Lars Anderson, staff writer for Sports Illustrated , author of Carlisle vs. the Army and The All Americans. “ VIVID . Through the prism of one of the greatest tennis matches ever played, Marshall Jon Fisher throws open a window on the terrifying world of the thirties in Europe; illuminating in vivid detail the persecution of Baron Gottfried von Cramm; the pitiful kow-towing to Hitler by the tennis authorities and, rising above it all, the innate sportsmanship of the two friends and rivals, von Cramm and Donald Budge. Between every Budge backhand and von Cramm volley, history rears up in all its ‘terrible splendor.’ ” — Richard J. Evans, author of The Davis Cup: Celebrating One Hundred Years of International Tennis and The Coming of the Third Reich. PERFORMANCE RIGHTS : Stone Canyon Media. (Under option for feature film as of 2013.) UK, FOREIGN RIGHTS: c/ o Crown / Random House, Inc. FOREIGN RIGHTS SOLD: German (Osburg Verlag), Italian (66thand2nd). Marshall Jon Fisher ’s work has appeared in the Atlantic, Harper’s, and other magazines. H is essay “Memoria ex Machina” was featured in Best American Essays 2003 . He has written several books with his father, David E. Fisher, including Tube: The Invention of Television . Marshall lives in the Berkshires with his wife and two sons. Marshall Jon Fisher. A Backhanded Gift , a novel (New Chapter Press, 2013). Mysteries of Lost Empires (MacMillan UK 2000). Companion to the NOVA series. With David E. Fisher. Tube: The Invention of Television (Counterpoint 1996, Harcourt-Brace paperback 1997). With David E. Fisher. The Ozone Layer (Chelsea House 1992). Articles/Essays/Stories. Medium.com. 7/2/20 “Nabokov vs. Hemingway” — Volodya and Papa in a Bout for the Ages. 4/9/20 “Packets of Air” — a surreal pneumonia ICU experience, pre-COVID. Sports Illustrated (website) 3/13/17 “Disallow the Bouncing Ball” — a modest proposal for professional tennis. Country. Sept 2016 “Lawn Boys” — an age-old chore, family style. The San Francisco Chronicle. The New York Times (website) 12/26/14 “A Hell of a Thing” — insomnia and parenting. Brandeis Magazine. Summer 2013 “Little Feet” — short story. Berkshire Magazine. Dec 2012 “Hangman” — laundry and life. 2005 “Cannibals ” —poem. The Atlantic Monthly. May 2002 “Tennis on the Green” —grass-court tennis. Dec 2001 “Pixels at an Exhibition” —digital photography. May 2000 “The Unlikely Father of Miami Crime Fiction” — Charles Willeford. April 1998 “An Eye for Anomaly” —Rosamond Purcell. Sept 1997 “moldovascam.com” —internet scam. Aug 1997 “Artful Restorations” —ébénesterie. July 1997 “Alleycat Couriers” —bicycle messenger races. July 1995 “The Feel of Wood” —wooden tennis rackets. Jan 1998 (website) “Punt, Pass, Dance, and Pray” —end-zone celebrations. Oct 1997 ; (website) “Brando’s Birds” —Atlantic Abroad, Paris. Aug 1997 (website) “Ecophobia” —environmental angst. Harper’s. Dec 2002 “Memoria ex Machina ” —reprint from DoubleTake. DoubleTake. Summer 2002 “Memoria ex Machina” —a remembrance of gadgets past. Discover. July 2002 “The X-Prize” —civilian rocketry. April 2001 “The Nitrogen Bomb” —nitrogen pollution. Country Journal. May 2000 “At Home with Annie”—profile.