Preface to ...Sting Like a Bee: The Muhammad Ali Story
Mailer's preface to Jose Torres's biography of Muhammad Ali, arguing that champion boxers are highly intelligent men and recalling editing Torres's prose in Vermont in June 1971.
Mailer’s preface (pp. ix–xiv) to …Sting Like a Bee: The Muhammad Ali Story, by José Torres (with Bert Sugar), published by Abelard-Schuman in late August or early September 1971, with an epilogue by Budd Schulberg and sketches by LeRoy Neiman. Against the sportswriter’s cliché of the dumb fighter, Mailer argues that champion boxers are “most intelligent men,” possessed of “a marvelous sense of balance in their estimate of changing events under high pressure.” He recalls watching Torres write Parts I and III over “a hot month of June” in 1971 in Vermont, near Mailer’s own place, and functioning “as a sort of editor each night, suggesting cuts.”
A full transcription (rights cleared) is held at full text; Project Mailer reprints the preface with the permission of Mailer’s estate — a permission the editor confirms extends to this project.