Search
Log in
  • Home

  • Categories

  • Audiobooks

  • E-books

  • Magazines

  • For kids

  • Top lists

  • Help

  • Download app

  • Use campaign code

  • Redeem gift card

  • Try free now
  • Log in
  • Language

    🇸🇪 Sverige

    • SE
    • EN

    🇧🇪 Belgique

    • FR
    • EN

    🇩🇰 Danmark

    • DK
    • EN

    🇩🇪 Deutschland

    • DE
    • EN

    🇪🇸 España

    • ES
    • EN

    🇫🇷 France

    • FR
    • EN

    🇳🇱 Nederland

    • NL
    • EN

    🇳🇴 Norge

    • NO
    • EN

    🇦🇹 Österreich

    • AT
    • EN

    🇨🇭 Schweiz

    • DE
    • EN

    🇫🇮 Suomi

    • FI
    • EN
  1. Books
  2. Biographies
  3. Sports biographies

Read and listen for free for 14 days!

Cancel anytime

Try free now
2.0(1)

Arthur Ashe : A Life

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

A “thoroughly captivating biography” (The San Francisco Chronicle) of American icon Arthur Ashe—the Jackie Robinson of men’s tennis—a pioneering athlete who, after breaking the color barrier, went on to become an influential civil rights activist and public intellectual.

Born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1943, by the age of eleven, Arthur Ashe was one of the state’s most talented black tennis players. He became the first African American to play for the US Davis Cup team in 1963, and two years later he won the NCAA singles championship. In 1968, he rose to a number one national ranking. Turning professional in 1969, he soon became one of the world’s most successful tennis stars, winning the Australian Open in 1970 and Wimbledon in 1975. After retiring in 1980, he served four years as the US Davis Cup captain and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985.

In this “deep, detailed, thoughtful chronicle” (The New York Times Book Review), Raymond Arsenault chronicles Ashe’s rise to stardom on the court. But much of the book explores his off-court career as a human rights activist, philanthropist, broadcaster, writer, businessman, and celebrity. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ashe gained renown as an advocate for sportsmanship, education, racial equality, and the elimination of apartheid in South Africa. But from 1979 on, he was forced to deal with a serious heart condition that led to multiple surgeries and blood transfusions, one of which left him HIV-positive. After devoting the last ten months of his life to AIDS activism, Ashe died in February 1993 at the age of forty-nine, leaving an inspiring legacy of dignity, integrity, and active citizenship.

Based on prodigious research, including more than one hundred interviews, Arthur Ashe puts Ashe in the context of both his time and the long struggle of African-American athletes seeking equal opportunity and respect, and “will serve as the standard work on Ashe for some time” (Library Journal, starred review).


Author:

  • Raymond Arsenault

Narrator:

  • Desean Terry

Format:

  • Audiobook
  • E-book

Duration:

  • 32 h 3 min
  • 872 pages

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Biographies
  • Sports biographies

More by Raymond Arsenault

Skip the list
  1. John Lewis

    Raymond Arsenault

    audiobook
  2. Crucible of Liberty

    Raymond Arsenault

    book

Others have also read

Skip the list
  1. House of Cards : The dirty game behind the game - confessions of a global referee

    Jonas Eriksson, Anders Cedhamre

    book
  2. The Three Lives of the Kaiser

    Uli Hesse

    audiobookbook
  3. Bleeding Blue : Giving My All for the Game

    Wendel Clark

    book
  4. Bobby Moore : By the Person Who Knew Him Best

    audiobook
  5. 1972 : The Series That Changed Hockey Forever

    Scott Morrison

    book
  6. Black and White : The Way I See It

    Richard Williams

    audiobookbook
  7. Winston Churchill, A Biography

    René Kraus

    book
  8. No One Wins Alone: A Memoir

    Mark Messier, Jimmy Roberts

    audiobook
  9. Dear Cary : My Life with Cary Grant

    Dyan Cannon

    audiobook
  10. Deconstructing Sammy

    Matt Birkbeck

    audiobook
  11. A Guy Like Me: Fighting to Make the Cut

    John Scott

    audiobookbook
  12. Mind Games : The Ups and Downs of Life and Football

    audiobook

  • 3 books

    Raymond Arsenault

    Raymond Arsenault is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. One of the nation’s leading civil rights historians, he is the author of several acclaimed and prize-winning books, including Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice and The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America.

    Read more

Help and contact


About us

  • Our story
  • Career
  • Press
  • Accessibility
  • Partner with us
  • Investor relations
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Explore

  • Categories
  • Audiobooks
  • E-books
  • Magazines
  • For kids
  • Top lists

Popular categories

  • Crime
  • Biographies and reportage
  • Fiction
  • Feel-good and romance
  • Personal development
  • Children's books
  • True stories
  • Sleep and relaxation

Nextory

Copyright © 2025 Nextory AB

Privacy Policy · Terms ·
Excellent4.3 out of 5