Refugee Smith and Other Stories of the Ring - Roger Coleman
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Book description:
Eustace Cockrell was a pioneer writer who, during television’s “Golden Age” of the 1950s, contributed to many award-winning shows including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Philco Television Playhouse, and Naked City. He also wrote teleplays for many of the early Western classics including Man Without a Gun and Cheyenne.
Prior to his television career, however, Cockrell was a prolific writer of short stories. Over a 25-year period, beginning in 1932, his works appeared regularly in prominent pulp fiction magazines such as Blue Book and Argosy and in “slicks” like Collier’s, The Saturday Evening Post, and Cosmopolitan.
These stories, 114 unique tales, are now republished by Mission Point Press in a five-volume set, The Collected Works of Eustace Cockrell, edited by Roger Coleman, Cockrell’s son-in-law. Coleman, also a writer, is married to Cockrell’s daughter, Elizabeth.
While Cockrell's short stories covered a broad range of fiction categories—detective, adventure, romance, and even science fiction—he was primarily a writer of sports stories with the boxing ring being his favorite setting.
In 1940, Cockrell created one of the first African-American fictional heroes in the person of boxer Refugee Smith. Sixteen Refugee Smith stories are combined in this collection for the first time. (MGM purchased the rights to several Refugee Smith episodes with the film version, Tennessee Champ, appearing in 1954.) Also included in this volume are ten additional “stories of the ring” written by Cockrell.
Cockrell’s plots are often complex. Fighters enter the ring for a reason and the discovery of that reason is what makes Cockrell’s tales relevant in a world where boxing, once America's favorite sport next to baseball, no longer holds the attraction it held for previous generations.
Publisher : Mission Point Press (April 5, 2022)
ISBN : 978-1-954786-74-5 (softcover)
ISBN : 978-1954786813 (hardcover)
Retail price : $17.50 (softcover); $29.95 (hardcover)
8.5 x 11 inches (hardcover)
8.27 x 11.69 inches (softcover)
182 pages