Days of Grace

The autobiography of tennis great Arthur Ashe, the first black man to win Wimbledon. Tennis is only a part of this man's life; I find him one of the most admirable and courageous men I have come to know of. Through his early struggles against racism, his later activism for the cause of civil rights and the abolishment of Apartheid, and his struggle against transfusion-acquired AIDS, his basic belief that the world is a fine place and worth fighting for never wavered. And yet, he was a human being rather than an icon, a warm and likeable human being whom I would have been honored to have as a friend.

Arthur Ashe made a name for himself as a pioneer black man in the overwhelmingly white world of tennis. He also happened to live at a time of great civil unrest, and saw his country undergoing fundamental changes, as well as his sport. Ashe had 2 bypass surgeries, and the second caused him to need a blood transfusion, leading to his contraction of AIDS. The second half of the book is comprised of a series of essays about Ashe's activism in the civil rights movement and AIDS. Things have changed in both of these arenas since Ashe wrote the book, and so his writings had less impact on me than I expected, but still this book is well worth reading.

Gift to Christopher from Henry & Katie Schwager