A Tennis Memoir
New York: Viking Press, [1969]. First printing. Hardcover. 8 1/2 by 5 3/4 inches; 219 by 149 mm. 184 pages. Hardcover, in very good condition, bound in dark green cloth with light green paper-covered boards, with a blind-stamped tennis court and net on the front board, in a very good jacket. Book's top edge is lightly faded from sunlight, its endpapers are very lightly toned, and page 69 has a two-inch crease at the upper corner. Jacket has three tiny scuffs at the folds and light toning along the top edges of the inner flaps, and exposure to sunlight has uniformly changed the spine panel's background color from green to blue without affecting the white lettering. Jacket enclosed in a clear, archival-quality, removable protective cover. Item #456
Inscribed by the author on the half-title page, "To [previous owner],/At the suggestion/of Owen Daly, he feels/you should read this/before asking him to play/again. Good luck and/keep swinging./Sincerely,/Don Budge/7/28/69". Budge, born in Oakland, California, in 1915, was the top player in the world from 1937 to 1942, and in 1938 he became the first person to complete a Grand Slam. Tennis magazine named him as one of the top twenty players of the twentieth century. His memoir begins with an account of his 1937 Davis Cup victory over Gottfried von Cramm, a match often noted as one of the greatest ever. The rest of the book, which was written with the help of the respected sportswriter Frank Deford, blends opinionated stories from Budge's career with detailed playing advice. Includes an eight-page section of black-and-white photographs.
Price: $175.00