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The late tennis champion, activist, and AIDS victim remembers his experiences in the segregated South of his youth, his triumphs on the court, his family and religious life, and his struggle with his disease. Reprint. NYT. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

Class act on and off the court
He was a great, history making tennis player. But far greater than that, Ashe was an extraordinary human being with keen insight into social issues who left a wonderful legacy for future generations to hopefully emulate.Great book.

Arthur AShe- Days of Glory review
The book is well written and very good.I enjoyed reading about a person who was well known and successful in the sports community buthad much sadness in his life.He rose above that and lived a gracious life of giving. I have always admired Arthur Ashe and this book confirms my feelings.

Moving biography which highlights the complexity of living with HIV/AIDS
The biography was absolutely rivteting.It showed the enormous depth of a very special man - a side other than that of a great athlete but also one of a very special leader.His story of living with AIDS reveals all the complexities associated with the disease early in the epidemic, the stigma, the lack of confidentiality, and discrimination.Unfortunately, many of these themes have not gone away since the I read the book.A must read for the entire community as an important reminder of the still unending work that has to be done in this epidemic.
Pamela Payne Foster, author of "Is there a balm in Black America?"

Graceful first half; droll second half
I cannot remember the last time I started reading a book and enjoying it as much as I did, and then half way through the book I could barely continue on.Arthur Ashe did this to me in his autobiography.What happened really, I couldn't say, but I was all praise and looked forward to reading more and more, and then I couldn't wait to be done.Strange indeed.

The book started off great.Ashe gave us some insight into his world and into various aspects of his life that is not well known.He talked about his days as the captain of the American Davis Cup team, which was enlightening and revealing.He tells the intimate details of how, why and what happened when he discovered, as well as was discovered, to have aids.The opening chapter had me gripped to the seat as I was drawn in from the first few words.Amidst all this was Ashe's eloquence and ability to calmly and eloquently tell his story and impart who he was at the same time.

But then it became droll and boring.Ashe started talking about day to day stuff and imparting common conversations, thoughts and actions with too much importance.He would talk about going for a walk, or a talk he had with his daughter.He devoted several chapters to talking about various issues that didn't have anything to do with him but was more of a long winded explanation to help clarify a one sentence thought that he had.For example, he talked for almost a whole chapter about the likelihood of gay and lesbian athletes in various sports.Finally, as much as this seems touching, the letter at the end to his daughter sealed the deal and made this a mostly boring biography to read.

What we didn't see was his struggle with racism and segregation as he grew up in those troubled times of America.He talks a lot about segregation and racism as a retired tennis player, but he hardly goes into any detail about what ordeals he had to go through.This was the stuff that he could have gone into detail about and not only made his writing more interesting but helped raise awareness to what was and to hopefully will no longer be.Additionally, he didn't go into any detail about his own tennis career as a professional.

I wanted to see Ashe as a tennis player as well as his ordeals with the many surgeries he had that resulted in him contracting AIDS.But we don't get that.Instead we oftentimes get paragraph after paragraph of his day to day routine with AIDS.What pills he took, what he considered taking and so on.

What made his biography interesting in the first place was his stance on the black race and how they perceived themselves after slavery, segregation and slavery.He was truly a man beyond his time not only for black relations but for mankind's relationship with one another.For the first half of the book I would most certainly recommend to anyone as this is a very enlightening read.But the second half killed it and made it nothing more than average.Where was the biography part of autoBIOGRAPHY?I didn't find it, but I was still impressed with who Ashe was nonetheless.

3 stars.

A Lasting Legacy of Grace and Greatness
That tennis great Arthur Ashe died a victim of AIDS on February 6, 1993, is an undeniable tragedy. The fact that while he lived, he did so with consummate integrity, intelligence, and grace, remains his enduring legacy. Written with literary biographer Arnold Rampersad (Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison) Arthur Ashe's DAYS OF GRACE provides readers with a powerful portrait of an exceptional individual entrenched in the issues and passions of his life and times. Aside from being one of the most dynamic athletes of his or any other generation, his legacy also marks him as one of our greatest humanitarians.

In this invitingly intimate and yet stoically objective memoir, Ashe grapples with the issues of sports, racism, and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) which he contracted while receiving a blood transfusion after his second heart bypass operation in 1983. DAYS OF GRACE reveals different sides to a man many described as "cold" while he lived. The view from within does not support this description. Some very warm snapshots are provided of Ashe as a man who never stopped being an obedient son, as a fervent patriot, lover of art, serious intellectual, mystical seeker, generous philanthropist, devoted husband, and loving father.

Ashe's tendency to gloss over such feats as writing a landmark three-volume history of black athletes, his historic 1970 win at the Australian Tennis Open and 1975 victory at Wimbledon; or his association with people like Nelson Mandela and Jesse Jackson, rings true to an exceptional character whose many parts added up to a truly noble and memorable sum. As tragically as he may have died, DAYS OF GRACE provides an amazing portrait of just how heroically he lived.

by Author-Poet Aberjhani
author of "The Bridge of Silver Wings"
and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)
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Product Description

Born in the segregated South in 1943, Ashe overcame racial prejudices and segregation to break into the world of tennis, which had traditionally been dominated by whites. He rose to the top of the sport, winning three Grand Slam trophies and playing on the Davis Cup team. His tennis career came to an abrupt end when he suffered a heart attack while in his thirties. Ashe began a post-tennis career that included speaking out on social issues that mattered most to him, including educational excellence for African American athletes, the injustice of the apartheid system in South Africa, and better health care for all Americans. After contracting the AIDS virus through a blood transfusion, he began to speak out on the subject of AIDS in order to help people understand the disease.

After a brilliant career on the tennis court, Ashe devoted the remainder of his life to fighting for social justice at home and abroad and to fighting the illnesses that had struck him while he was still a young man. Steins tells the inspiring story of Arthur Ashe, a great tennis champion whose skills on the court as well as his exceptional and honorable personal characteristics made him stand out among all players of his generation. A timeline and other appendices highlight Ashe's career and life.

Product Description
The widow of tennis star Arthur Ashe, who recently died of AIDS, offers a photographic portrait of Ashe's relationship with his six-year-old daughter during his illness, accompanied by the child's reflections on living with and helping her father. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A must for an elementary teacher's HIV & AIDS lesson.
"Daddy and Me" presents the realities of living with a parent who has contracted the HIV virus. I've read this book to fourth grade students for the past two years as a part of our Human Sexuality/HIV curriculum that is mandated by our district. Both years the children came away with new insights into the AIDS crisis.The book is an excellent tool to initiate the lesson.Although I have read the book many times, I still find it difficult to get through without crying. ... Read more

Product Description
Between Wimbledon 1973 and Wimbledon 1974 top tennis professional Arthur Ashe played center court on five continents, made 129 airplane trips, slept in 71 different beds, and traveled 165,000 miles. The dramatic diary he kept throughout that time on and off the court is the basis of this book. of photographs. ... Read more

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A must
"Portrait in Motion," essentially a diary kept by Arthur Ashe in 1973 and 1974, captures life on the pro tennis circuit better than any other book I've read. The tour has changed a lot since then, of course, but his description ofweek-to-week ups and downs (most weeks, of course, end with a loss) holds up well. There are plenty of flashes of Ashe's political consciousness as well, but his frank discussion of his agnosticism doesn't quite match the spirituality he describes in later books. ... Read more

Product Description

A picture book biography of Arthur Ashe, who began playing on segregated courts and went on to become the top tennis player in the world.

From the start, Arthur Ashe was an unlikely tennis player. As a young boy in the 1940s, he was small and skinny - and barred from most tennis courts because he was black. Still, Arthur was drawn to the game and began to play wherever he could.

With patience, hard work, and humility, Arthur pursued his dream. Defeating player after player, match after match, he blazed a path on the courts, becoming the first African American man to win a Grand Slam tournament.
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Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children
With his three Grand Slam titles, tennis great Arthur Ashe left an important legacy as an incredibly gifted athlete who also fought for civil rights, the end of Apartheid in South Africa, and greater funding for AIDS research.Born and raised in Richmond, VA, Arthur started playing tennis at the age of six on Richmond's segregated courts.His willowy frame belied his power and agility, and Arthur quickly gained the attention of a coach and the local tennis circuit.

By Arthur's senior year of high school, the lack of indoor courts for blacks constrained his ability to train and compete enough that his coach recommended he move to St. Louis, Missouri, where he could play year-round. Arthur did so well that he earned a scholarship to UCLA, the first black tennis player ever to do so. Arthur continued to break records and racial barriers as he climbed up the rankings to become one of the best tennis players in the world.

This book offers a refreshing opportunity for young learners to learn about Arthur Ashe's accomplishments on and off the tennis courts. The biographical narrative takes its time in describing several key tennis matches in vivid detail, adding excitement and suspense for young readers not yet familiar with Ashe's record.Clearly wrapped into the text are essential lessons about discrimination as a barrier to career development and about activism as a tool for promoting social justice.
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Great Mystery
I read up till the end to find out why Faith stopped playing tennis.Also got to learn a little about Arthur Ashe. ... Read more

Product Description
Profiles the late tennis legend and social activist who overcame racism to reach the top of the predominately white tennis world and who became a spokesman for civil rights, the American Heart Association, and the fight against AIDS. ... Read more

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Traces the tennis career of Arthur Ashe and describes the discrimination he faced as he worked to master "the white man's game." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Arthur Ahse by Caroline LAzo
I thought this book was imformative, well structred and good for my report. It had important facts i needed, and they werent to general. Sometimes , the pictures got a little distracting and they were some what pompous. Overall it helped me with my term papaer, and I am glad i bought from AMAZON!!!! ... Read more

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A biography of the first black man to win at Wimbledon. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 2nd ed., brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 738 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The Early Civilizations in the Americas Reference Library provides a comprehensive overview of the history of the regions of the American continents in which two of the world's first civilizations developed: Mesoamerica (the name for the lands in which ancient civilizations arose in Central America and Mexico) and the Andes Mountains region of South America (in present-day Peru and parts of Bolivia, northern Argentina, and Ecuador). In both regions, the history of civilization goes back thousands of years. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 790 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Signed essays ranging from 500 to 2,500 words, written by subject experts and edited to form a consistent, readable, and straightforward reference. Entries include subject-specific bibliographies and textual cross-references to related essays. ... Read more