Ali: A Life

Jonathan Eig

Image | BOOK COVER: ALI: A Life by Jonathan Eig

Caption: (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Jonathan Eig breaks ground with this comprehensive biography, radically reshaping our understanding of Muhammad Ali. Eig had access to all the key people in Ali's life, including his three surviving wives and his managers. He also had access to thousands of pages of new FBI and Justice Department files, as well dozens of hours of newly discovered audiotaped interviews from the 1960s.
Eig reveals Ali in the complexity he deserves, shedding important new light on his politics and his neurological condition. In one of the first podcast episodes, "A Blow to the Head," Eig shares why his interview with ring doctor Ferdie Pacheco was like taking a punch to the kidneys — and what he learned about Ali's early signs of traumatic brain injury. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)