Well, Ms. Jacobs certainly did her homework. I was moved to tears on more than one occasion. Sometimes out of awe for Ms. Gibson and sometimes out of frustration for the things that happened to her. I grew up watching tennis and while I knew Ms. Gibson's name in theory, I knew nothing. That is a shame and Ms. Jacobs has done her best to make sure we never forget.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review! I'm not a big nonfiction reader, but I was intrigued by exploring Althea's story. As an African American woman, inspired at a young age by Venus and Serena Williams, I wanted to learn more about other black athletes. While I think Althea's story was frustrating and heartbreaking in the end, she was a phenomenal pioneer in the sport of tennis. Some believed that the story was too long and provided too much historical background, but I think that it was needed to paint an accurate picture of her life. This is a book I will recommend to family members and patrons alike. I'm glad that I had the pleasure of delving into Althea's legacy.

Great piece about Althea and her impact on tennis and women in sports in general! Author did a great job looking at all the angles and doing her research.

I had heard Althea’s name before, but never knew anything about her. I’m glad I go to learn more about her, but even for a biography, the writing was a little too dry. It took me several months to get through this.

This past summer I took on a couple major new biographies that were really loooonnnnngggg. The Larry McMurty biography and The biography of Althea Gibson, one of the greatest tennis players in history, despite a troubled life from a horrific childhood in Harlam through her tennis career with anxiety and feeling like a "nobody" even after winning Wimbledon. Despite a lot of setbacks she loved the sport and managed to achieve greatness and helped paved the way for more black players including the Williams sisters who she helped train.
This is not simply a story about a famous tennis star, but a history of America and the Jin Crow laws where black people were not allowed anywhere white people would be. It is a terrible part of if our nation's history and I feel ashamed at the cruel treatment these people endured in those days and are still enduring in our society in the present. Don"t let that part of tte book jeep you from reading this excellent book. This is one of the reasons I like reading a lot of biographies... the good ones aren't simply a story about a famous person, but the life and times that person lives and how they survived in that environment.
I admit I didn't"t know many of all the tennis platers before tte '70s. They all seemed very caring of each other off the court and with no supportive family members they became Althea's "family". She did have some love interests and was married twice. I really liked how Althea always seem to bounce back after losing. She was also a good tennis coach for young people and she also enjoyed singing , loved performing at public events and even recorded an album. She never made a million dollar income from tennis, even as a winner and took different jobs to earn money.
What a terrific read. Sure it is long but there is so much to write about. Author Sally G Jacob did an amazing job in research and she lists a lot of "for further readings" in case you might want to explore any. topics further.
Thank you to Net Galley, publisher McMillan and author Sally G Jacob for giving me the opportunity to read this terrific biography and my opinion is my own and freely guven.

As the @usopen wraps up today, I want to share the story of Althea Gibson. She was a pioneer in women’s tennis and was inspiration to not just tennis players, but all young female athletes. At the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens, there’s a beautiful art installation of Althea. If you are at the Open next year, you should check it out.

I also want to mention that this year’s Open is the 50th anniversary of women receiving equal prize money as the men. Many thanks to Billie Jean King who paved the way for women today.

Synopsis
In 1950, three years after Jackie Robinson first walked onto the diamond at Ebbets Field, the all-white, upper-crust US Lawn Tennis Association opened its door just a crack to receive a powerhouse player who would integrate "the game of royalty." The player was a street-savvy young Black woman from Harlem named Althea Gibson who was about as out-of-place in that rarefied and intolerant world as any aspiring tennis champion could be. Her tattered jeans and short-cropped hair drew stares from everyone who watched her play, but her astonishing performance on the court soon eclipsed the negative feelings being cast her way as she eventually became one of the greatest American tennis champions.

Gibson had a stunning career. Raised in New York and trained by a pair of tennis-playing doctors in the South, Gibson’s immense talent on the court opened the door for her to compete around the world. She won top prizes at Wimbledon and Forest Hills time and time again. The young woman underestimated by so many wound up shaking hands with Queen Elizabeth II, being driven up Broadway in a snowstorm of ticker tape, and ultimately became the first Black woman to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated and the second to appear on the cover of Time. In a crowning achievement, Althea Gibson became the No. One ranked female tennis player in the world for both 1957 and 1958.

Thank you so much @stmartinspress and @sallyhjacobs for my gifted copy. Althea is available now.

Althea Gibson broke the barrier for a black woman to play professional tennis that was played professionally by all white tennis players. This paved a way for others to come behind her to play tennis professionally such as Zina Garrison, sisters Venus and Serena Williams .
Althea was born in the segregated south and moved with her family to Harlem New York. She came from a dysfunctional family and practically raised herself in the streets fighting her way through especially her father who would constantly beat her and her mother did little to protect her.
She finally met two doctors that also played tennis and they would alternate letting Althea live with them to train and coach her in tennis.
There is a lot of history that I learned from reading Althea’s story. The author did a great job in researching the history behind Althea’s personal and professional life.
I highly recommend this book to read.
I received an arc from NetGalley and this review is of my own honest opinion and thoughts.

An in-depth look at one of the great female athletes of the 20th Century who has long been overlooked.

How is it possible that a young woman from an impoverished African American family in Harlem overcame seemingly insurmountable odds during the 1950’s to become not just a great tennis player but a champion time and again at Wimbledon
and what is now known as the US Open? She became the first black woman to achieve these and other successes, and yet her name is not often recognized outside of the tennis world. This biography by former Boston Globe reporter Sally H. Jacobs takes a thorough look at who Althea Gibson was; where and how she grew up, how she rose to such heights in a sport dominated by wealthy white people, what obstacles she faced, who helped and who didn’t, and what happened when she stopped playing the game.

While I would not consider myself a tennis aficionado, I certainly remember many of the champions (both male and female) who have succeeded in the sport in my lifetime. From Billie Jean King and Chris Everett through Venus and Serena Williams, with Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe (oh, those tantrums!), Boris Becker, right up to Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, there have been so many tennis greats who have crossed the line into celebrity. So too did Althea Gibson in her day, but as I discovered through reading this book it was a very different time for tennis and those who played the game. To participate in those tournaments, an athlete had to remain an amateur in status, and therefore was not making large sums of money from appearances and endorsements. As many of the players came from a financially secure background, this was not a huge problem for them, but for someone like Althea the worry of having money for meals and hotel rooms was every bit the concern that playing well was. Jackie Robinson had just broken through barriers in the world of baseball, but Althea faced discrimination and dismissal not only for being Black but for being a woman. Many of the women tennis players of her time were beautiful and feminine, gracious and graceful in their feminine white outfits. Althea was different, very aggressive and athletic in her play, driven to win, not prone to schmoozing the press or ingratiating herself within the tennis world. Her talent could not be denied, but she did not reap the same post-career benefits of the more traditional (and white) tennis players of her generation….no cushy board position at a sporting goods company like Wilson, or offers of writing a sports column for a magazine came her way. Was it because she was a woman? Not entirely, as other women did indeed net such deals. Was it her color? Certainly that was likely a factor. Was it her reserved, often prickly or blunt personality? Again, almost certainly that played into it too. But it meant that this incredibly successful and talented athlete struggled throughout her life for financial security, and towards the end of her life she was living in highly impoverished circumstances. She was a flawed person, and made her share of poor decisions, but she deserved better than what she got. The color of her skin, at a time when race relations were so bad that the US government organized tours of successful Black athletes to show the world that things weren’t as bad in the US as they seemed, was one of the biggest obstacles that Althea needed to conquer, and time and time again she did just that. It is not hard to believe that she was a hero to icons Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean KIng as well as Serena and Venus Williams. Hopefully this biography will start a dialogue that will lead to Althea Gibson getting the recognition today that she so richly deserves, in ways large and small.
You don’t need to love tennis to enjoy this book, though that wouldn’t hurt; you should be prepared to read about some ugly bits of our country’s history while also applauding those who helped to usher in acceptance of all. And be ready to meet a rough, funny, guarded, misunderstood woman who achieved so very much, and the people who helped her, loved her, and lived long enough to tell her story to a generation that had mostly forgotten about her. Many thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for allowing me access to an advanced reader’s copy of this well-researched biography of an amazing woman.

Thank you St Martin's Press for the amazingly detailed Althea by Sally H. Jacobs. This was a most welcome read as I did not know much, not nearly enough, about the life of Althea Gibson and now have a far better understanding not just of her life but of the meaning of her career and the impact it has had on the sport and recent and current players. At places the book gets repetitve but the power of the life lived is what matters.

This is a timely read as we move into the end of the big tennis tournament season and a great book for nonfiction/memoir book clubs.

Women are allowed to be complicated and Black women have endured centuries of our expectations that they behave one way or another. I appreciate a book celebrating a life filled with challenges, persistence, and accomplishment.

Congratulations to author Sally H. Jacobs on this encyclopedic work about one of tennis' most historic and groundbreaking figures. I am a huge tennis fan and appreciated this full-life biography of Althea Gibson that details a life about which I only knew in broad strokes.

Althea Gibson was a black tennis player growing up in Harlem during the first half of the twentieth century. Althea was supremely athletic and a tough competitor. There was much about this book that I found fascinating. Harlem during twenties, Althea's rough childhood, and the individuals who supported her during her early tennis days. I will admit to being more interested in the history of place and Althea's biography than the tennis itself and that proved to be a problem since there is a lot here about the tennis. For fans of the sport, this is a must-read account of everything that one of the first black women to play tennis had to overcome in order to become a champion. I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

The story of tennis legend Althea Gibson, this biography is wonderfully written. I haven’t read Althea’s autobiography, but this book is so comprehensive that I feel like nothing was left out here.

The preface of this book shares that Althea’s name isn’t as well-known as it should be, and I count myself as one of the people who was less familiar with her life. I encourage readers to pick up their own copies if they want to know more about one of the legends of tennis and the blueprint for Black players in the sport today. Althea’s impact on tennis and sports, in general, can’t be overstated and definitely shouldn’t be overlooked.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

Well respected and easy to follow, Sally H. Jacobs did a great job of bring Althea Gibson to life. I really enjoyed the deep dive into her background from growing up in Harlem to breaking color barriers despite wanting nothing to do with activism.

Gets dry and repetitive after a bit, but ultimately a fascinating biography!

Full Review:

I have never read about Althea Gibson before. Of course I know who she was, but I didn't know the ins and outs of her life. Jacobs does a great job with showing us the broad strokes of Althea's life, tennis career, golf career, and when her life started to spiral downwards after she was left jobless with no close friends or family nearby in New York.

I do think at times Jacobs held back way too much of herself in the writing. You don't really get a sense if she thinks that Althea was wrong in some cases or was in the right (thinking through how she handled the Black press as an example). And later on in Althea's life it does appear she had some people taking advantage of her, but once again it seems Jacobs wanted to soften things to not come across as "accusatory" maybe?

And I will say, the book starts to read very repetitive after a while. We get it, Althea did not want to be known as the Jackie Robinson of tennis. She didn't like the press. I really wish that we had gotten a better sense of the people that knew her. We get comments here and there from some people and I wish that Jacobs had provided even more details from them.

In the end I was left with even more questions about Althea.

I admittedly didn’t know a ton about Althea Gibson before receiving a copy of this book to read and review, but I love tennis and history, so I was excited to dig in. I alternated between reading and listening to the audiobook - I had the audiobook pretty sped up since the narration was kinda of slow and monotone.
Althea Gibson’s life, overall, was certainly heartbreaking, but she didn’t let any of the trials she faced hold her back. I can’t imagine having her determination and I truly admire her after reading this book. She was an absolute force and inspiration and should be way more widely recognized. I know it’s a sign of the disgusting times in our history that she was so easily cast aside despite her incredible talent, but she should definitely be praised now - I’ll definitely have to hunt for Althea Gibson children’s books to purchase for all my friends babies, so her name can be up there with Sally Ride and Katherine Johnson in their admirable female role models.
This book is heavy on the facts, but told well enough to keep attention. It’s definitely not a binge read - maybe a good bedside table book to pick up and put down with leisure. And it’s very long, which leads to my one star removal. I’d have a hard time recommending it to people who aren’t tennis or history buffs or any of my strictly fiction/romcom friends who’d probably find this book boring. But as far as a long into an incredible life, Sally H. Jacobs had created an incredible book about a bad*ss woman. I felt like I missed Althea as soon as the book ended.

I enjoy sports biographies and especially like stories about woman blazing a trail so this seemed right up my alley. As a tennis fan, I've been aware of Althea Gibson for a long time, but never came across a biography of her. Jacobs did an immense amount of research on her subject and the book is very detailed on all aspects of her life - from childhood on. This is a well-written book on an interesting subject, but it just didn't capture my attention the way I was hoping. The pacing was far too slow to keep me engaged and I abandoned at 40%. I may try it again in the future.

This brilliant bio of Althea Gibson, #1 ranked female tennis player in the world in 1957 and 1958, and the first Black woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association, captures in fierce prose the many obstacles Gibson overcame throughout life to reach tennis' pinnacle. A must-read masterpiece by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Sally H. Jacobs, both inspiring and heartbreaking.

Althea Gibson was a great number of things, most notably was that she was a woman who had the experience of becoming the first black, female tennis champion to win Wimbledon and ten other grand slam championships during the time that players were not paid except for room and board. Moreover, she did this during a time when, unfortunately, many people were believers of keeping “colored” people and whites separated .
She was overlooked by sponsors, insulted by fans and other players ( there were some who cheered her on ) and often panned by publications for not advancing the cause of the negro.
She later played on the professional golf tour, and worked for the promotion of athleticism.
She came before the Williams sisters or Zina Garrison, but, that was 1950s…. And not many know her history now. I hope this book is read by every female tennis player from cover to cover. Ms. Gibson did so much and reaped few benefits from her success that every player should see how a great life can evolve. I hope they are able to see the lessons in here.
I do recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me this ARC.

Even growing up playing tennis, I knew embarrassingly little about Althea Gibson, who paved the way for the integration of women's tennis, so I was so glad I could pick up this book and learn more about her story. This book was excellently researched and engaging. I wish Sally Jacobs had spent a little more time on the important matches in Althea's career, as most of them simply stated the score, and only few described simply when the tide turned for or against her in a match. This is a hard book to read, not only the racism that she endured throughout her career but the heartbreaking end of her life alone.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

An in-depth look at one of the great female athletes of the 20th Century who has long been overlooked.

How is it possible that a young woman from an impoverished African American family in Harlem overcame seemingly insurmountable odds during the 1950’s to become not just a great tennis player but a champion time and again at Wimbledon and what is now known as the US Open? She became the first black woman to achieve these and other successes, and yet her name is not often recognized outside of the tennis world. This biography by former Boston Globe reporter Sally H. Jacobs takes a thorough look at who Althea Gibson was; where and how she grew up, how she rose to such heights in a sport dominated by wealthy white people, what obstacles she faced, who helped and who didn’t, and what happened when she stopped playing the game.

While I would not consider myself a tennis aficionado, I certainly remember many of the champions (both male and female) who have succeeded in the sport in my lifetime. From Billie Jean King and Chris Everett through Venus and Serena Williams, with Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe (oh, those tantrums!), Boris Becker, right up to Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, there have been so many tennis greats who have crossed the line into celebrity. So too did Althea Gibson in her day, but as I discovered through reading this book it was a very different time for tennis and those who played the game. To participate in those tournaments, an athlete had to remain an amateur in status, and therefore was not making large sums of money from appearances and endorsements. As many of the players came from a financially secure background, this was not a huge problem for them, but for someone like Althea the worry of having money for meals and hotel rooms was every bit the concern that playing well was. Jackie Robinson had just broken through barriers in the world of baseball, but Althea faced discrimination and dismissal not only for being Black but for being a woman. Many of the women tennis players of her time were beautiful and feminine, gracious and graceful in their feminine white outfits. Althea was different, very aggressive and athletic in her play, driven to win, not prone to schmoozing the press or ingratiating herself within the tennis world. Her talent could not be denied, but she did not reap the same post-career benefits of the more traditional (and white) tennis players of her generation….no cushy board position at a sporting goods company like Wilson, or offers of writing a sports column for a magazine came her way. Was it because she was a woman? Not entirely, as other women did indeed net such deals. Was it her color? Certainly that was likely a factor. Was it her reserved, often prickly or blunt personality? Again, almost certainly that played into it too. But it meant that this incredibly successful and talented athlete struggled throughout her life for financial security, and towards the end of her life she was living in highly impoverished circumstances. She was a flawed person, and made her share of poor decisions, but she deserved better than what she got. The color of her skin, at a time when race relations were so bad that the US government organized tours of successful Black athletes to show the world that things weren’t as bad in the US as they seemed, was one of the biggest obstacles that Althea needed to conquer, and time and time again she did just that. It is not hard to believe that she was a hero to icons Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean KIng as well as Serena and Venus Williams. Hopefully this biography will start a dialogue that will lead to Althea Gibson getting the recognition today that she so richly deserves, in ways large and small.
You don’t need to love tennis to enjoy this book, though that wouldn’t hurt; you should be prepared to read about some ugly bits of our country’s history while also applauding those who helped to usher in acceptance of all. And be ready to meet a rough, funny, guarded, misunderstood woman who achieved so very much, and the people who helped her, loved her, and lived long enough to tell her story to a generation that had mostly forgotten about her.