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Revealing story of an intriguing and undeservedly forgotten professional sports star. --Greg LeMond As Andrew Ritchie's excellent biography demonstrates, [Taylor] became a cycling star not only through natural talent. He also had what one might call a force of dignity. --Tim Hilton, 'Times Literary Supplement' A fresh insight into the life of Major Taylor. It provides a fuller appreciation of the importance of cycling at the turn of the century when Major Taylor was literally the fastest man on earth. --Arthur Ashe A point made by Mr. Ritchie...in this earnest and well-researched study is that Taylor, only the second black after the boxer George Dixon to win a world championship, hardly left a trace that he had passed. --Samuel Abt, 'New York Times Book Review' Member of an oppressed race, hero in a nation with limited historical memory, this man, who had been so well known and whose life was so interesting, has been virtually forgotten. Ritchie's book admirably recaptures the story for us. --Elliott J. Gorn, 'Journal of American History'

A competent biography of one of the first great black athletes to dominate a previously all-white sport - early 20th-century bicycle racing - by Ritchie, author of King of the Road. Ritchie's work is the saga of an almost-forgotten era, when bicycle racers flourished as the nations sports heroes long before the emergence of team sports as national pastimes. Of all racers from the early decades of this century, Marshall W. (Major) Taylor, born poor on the outskirts of Indianapolis, dominated like no one else riding at the time. But this tale is given poignancy by the extra barrier of race that Taylor had to overcome in order to lead his field. Through a providential circumstance, Taylor was rendered well-equipped to mingle in a white world. As a young boy, his father had become a coachman to a wealthy white family, parents to an only child, who took Major under their wing in order to provide a playmate for that child. From this, Taylor gained great self-confidence and aplomb in the company of white folks. Taylor's break came when, in a shop to have his bike fixed, he was observed doing some fancy bike tricks that he had taught himself. He was immediately offered a job and a new bike by the owner of the store, thereby beginning his ascension into the world of bicycles and racing that would lead ultimately to national and international championships - despite early problems with dirty tricks aimed at putting the black upstart in his place. Unlike Peter Nye's recent Hearts of Lions (p. 521), a more general look at bike racing that told Taylor's story only as a piece of the whole, Ritchie takes us into Taylor's retirement, his disappointment at not being accepted into white colleges, his innovative inventions of new tires for the fledgling auto industry, and the Ultimate and mysterious failure of the Major Taylor Manufacturing Company. The final years left to him (he died at 53) were a blend of bad debts, a dissolving marriage, and painful bouts of coronary and renal problems that finally killed him. Taylor's nonbiking years are hard to document, and Ritchie depends heavily on newspaper accounts of the era and Taylor's own autobiography, The Fastest Bicycle Rider In the World. Despite this, Ritchie does an admirable job of bringing to life this forgotten hero. (Kirkus Reviews)

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Andrew Ritchie, a social and sports historian with a special interest in the early history of the bicycle and early photography, is the author of Bicyle Racing Records: A Statistical History of the Sport. A revised editon of his highly acclaimed social and technical history of cycling, The King of the Road, is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins.

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