VIEW: All ○ News ○ Reviews ○ Interviews ○ Lists
Apple Books: A Best Book for August
“The level of detail that Jacobs provides makes you feel like you have a courtside seat as Gibson navigates a brutally difficult era in the history of women’s tennis.… Althea restores a key figure of 20th-century sports to her rightful place of honor.”
Staff Picks: A Best Book for August
Apple Books
LA Times: 10 books to add to your reading list
“Harlem-born Althea Gibson knocked the tennis world’s lily-white country-club socks off with her powerful game in the early 1950s. … Jacobs, a Boston Globe journalist, shows how Gibson endured too much racism and too little admiration while setting the precedent for a more diverse and interesting sport.”
Bethanne Patrick, “10 books to add to your reading list in August,” Los Angeles Times, July 31, 2023.
NY Post: A champion ahead of her time
“When Althea Gibson was born in the South Carolina town of Silver in 1927, her birth certificate made no sense whatsoever. Chalk it up to an overexcited family member or an exhausted midwife; both her name and gender were inaccurately recorded.
’Instead of recording the birth of a girl named Althea, the record documented the birth of a boy named Alger,’ writes Sally Jacobs in Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson ( St. Martin’s Press).”
Gavin Newsham, “Tennis legend Althea Gibson was a champion ahead of her time: ‘Nothing to lose’,” New York Post, July 29, 2023.
Town & Country: 20 Best Tennis Books
“One of T&C’s most anticipated books for summer 2023, Sally Jacobs tells the story of tennis trailblazer Althea Gibson in this remarkable biography. Gibson was the first Black player to win a Grand Slam title (she would go on to win 11), and she would pave the way for generations of players, like Serena Williams and Sloane Stephens. Also, after she retired from tennis, she became the first Black player on the Women’s Professional Golf Tour. No big deal.”
Emily Burack, "20 Best Tennis Books to Read This Summer," Town & Country, June 3, 2023.