A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played

A Terrible Splendor by Marshall Jon Fisher is one of the best books I've read this year for [...]. The subtitle of the book is "Three Extraordinary Men, A World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Every Played" and it is all this, and so much more. It is certainly the very best tennis book I've ever read but even for non-tennis players, this book will hold you from first page until the last, providing suspense, thrills, and very sobering, moving, and compelling history.In telling the lives of Baron Gottfried Von Cramm, German tennis player, Don Budge, an American player from head to toe, and Bill Tilden, one of the mightiest racquet-wielders ever, and building their stories around the 1937 Davis Cup match between Cramm and Budge, Fisher brings to vibrant life the years between the two world wars, and the very different places that each of these players came from and answered to. Fisher illustrates through strong and engaging writing the dramatic differences that country, age, and sexual orientation played for these three men, and brings home the magnitude of their achievements, on court but also in their lives.Cramm was an aristocratic German with impeccable good looks, sportsmanship, and tennis playing. Opposed to the policies and practices of the Nazis, and gay, Cramm was safe from Nazi persecution only so long as he kept winning tennis matches for Germany. Budge was a middle-class American with phenomenal tennis skills, a love for Jazz and good times with the Hollywood cronies who befriended him, and solid support from the United States Tennis Association. Bill Tilden was the most famous tennis player of his time and into our own, as heralded for his amazing and enduring tennis-playing as for his off-court persona, infamous for his on-court antics, and highly irritating to the USTA for his bullheadedness as well as his ill-closeted gayness. Fisher gives us insight into all three, as well as solid introductions to many other figures of the times, including American tennis player Gene Mako, Queen Mary of England, English playwright Christopher Isherwood, German-Jewish tennis player Daniel Prenn, up and coming American Bobby Riggs, Hollywood types like Jack Benny and Charlie Chaplin, heiress Barbara Hutton, and Nazi terrors Goring, Himmler, and Hitler himself. That was the mix of the 1930s, a world indeed "poised for war." For some, World War II would bring persecution, deprivations, and personal tragedy, for others a new responsibility and realization of life's chaos, and for others, death.The tennis match around which A Terrible Splendor is structured is told with perfect timing, building momentum and suspense then taking a break (neither disruptive nor jarring) to tell more of the background history, personal and political and social, and then taking us back into the match. The book drove me through emotional ranges of tears, anger, and excitement, and I could not put it down, as caught up as I was in the amazing lives of these three very distinct individuals, the times they lived in, and the match itself. Indeed, I was on the edge of my seat throughout this marvelous book and unsure until the end who won this incredible battle that went five sets, who survived the spiraling years into World War II, and who met the promise of a world beyond tennis and beyond war. I will never forget Cramm, Budge, or Tilden, or this great book, A Terrible Splendor.

This book provides two great stories: 1. a summation of tennis in the 1920s and 1930s, a golden era in tennis, and 2. a historical perspective of how Europe could fall in to another World War so soon after the first. Frankly, the political perspective was just as enlightening as the tennis occupying approximately 1/4 of the book.The analysis of the tennis is exceptional! The book gives you a great feel for the difference to today's game such as how quickly they completed their matches in continuous play and the different clothing worn at that time. But the tennis section also contained the biggest flaw that was quite bothersome to me. The author attempts to weave his stories around the match for which the book is titled. Unfortunately, leaving a narrative description of a match in the middle for up to 100 pages can be confusing. Particularly when he describes in depth other players and matches in the interim. The book just does not flow well. And finally he's said all he wants to say and wraps a bow around it at the end. Now, I enjoyed the book immensely but this was a critical flaw that I believe could have been handled much better by a beginning chapter of the first set, a set-up of the importance of the match and then a chronilogical history leading to the match and after match.What surprised me most is how much I learned on the non tennis subjects. The author used great research and painted an exceptional picture of the political landscape. I strongly recommend the book and have already passed mine to another tennis fanatic. But be forewarned it can read disjointed.

Full Disclosure: My grandfather, Bryan M. "Bitsy" Grant, Jr. is prominently feature in this book, so I will have a large degree of supportive bias, or perhaps I would be even MORE critical of the work. You decide.I ran across this recently, and even contacted the author, since he made several references to my grandfather. One reference, in particular involved Frank Shields, actress Brooke Shields' grandfather, holding my grandfather Bitsy out of the 3rd story window of their London hotel by his ankle. I had heard this story directly from my grandpa late one night in 1986 when we shared a room together while I was in high school and he was suffering from terminal cancer. I thought it was a tall tale and that it happened either in Chicago or in Memphis at the Peabody Hotel, where Bitsy would take my father as a child to see the Ducks march up and down the elevators in the lobby. The author confirmed he possessed several distinct sources for the story and that it happened in London!The book deals with the Davis Cup, the sexual orientation of a German national tennis legend, World War II, the Nazi's, the British, and all that surrounded that era. Bitsy was on the Davis Cup team at the time, and faired rather well, surprising the press in those days since they viewed his background as not up to par to compete, much less win.It is a well-written story, and really does reflect a high level of scholarly research into all the players and circumstances written about in the story. There are also some choice photographs.As for my grandfather, several books have been written, but are mostly a sort of "Atlanta History of Tennis" with a "player on each page" historical book. This is the only properly written, professional quality story that prominently features Bitsy Grant.My hat is off to Mr. Fisher!

A very famous match that nobody recalls from 1937. It was great to read about this epic battle at Wimbledon. Very glad I chose to read it. Very well researched. Good for any tennis history buffs.

I learned some things that I never missed not knowing. The books gets boring after a while. I did not finish it.

arrived safely and in described condition at a very fair price.

Amazing purchase.

Me ha encantado el libro. Es un ,libro (en inglés, es una pena que no se haya traducido) que no sólo es de tenispero tambien de una época interesantísima. Para los amantes del tenis es un libro que refleja unos tenistas de otraépoca, con un talante fantástico. El único problema es que mi libro ha sido mal encuadernado. Lo he tenido que leeral revés, que para el autro debe de ser muy frustrante...en fin un libro maravilloso, interesante y muy ameno..

The best book on a tennis player yet!

This was a very interesting book that beautifully combined the story of the tennis match with the events of its time.