Tennis and the Meaning of Life

All the best fiction and poetry on tennis. The stories are hilarious and sad, lyrical and profane, and thoroughly saturated with the art of the game. Fathers play against sons. Business partners attempt mutual destruction by tennis. An amateur challenges the local pro. Humbert Humbert rhapsodizes about Lolita's heartbreakingly beautiful game. Tennis is played by telegraph. Tennis saves a life or two. The metaphysics of tennis balls is debated. Lovers cavort in a commingling of tennis and desire. 


"Superb. . . . Although the book's obvious appeal will be to people who know and care about the game, it will also be a delight--and perhaps a surprise--to those who know and care about literature."  --The New Yorker


"A lovely, gentle book . . . as refreshing as that first beer after a set of sweaty singles." --The Boston Globe


"My only complaint is the title's redundant." --David Foster Wallace


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CONTENTS


Foreword  —  George Vecsey — 7

Introduction  —  Jay Jennings— 11


Stories

Tennis  —  Roger Angell — 17

Beggars Would Ride  —  Beryl Bainbridge — 25

The Return of Service  —  Jonathan Baumbach — 33

Rackets and Riches at Wimbledon  —  J. P. Donleavy — 43

The Tennis Court  —  Douglas Dunn — 47

In the Land of Dreamy Dreams  —  Ellen Gilchrist — 57

Mother Coakley’s Reform  — Brendan Gill  — 69

Return to Return  —  Barry Hannah — 75

The Tennis Game  —  James Jones — 103

Tennis by Cable  —  Ring Lardner — 119

An FBI Story  — Peter LaSalle — 123

The Facts of Life — W. Somerset Maugham — 135

Pat-Ball — A. A. Milne — 155

Lolita — Vladimir Nabokov — 159

The Tennis Player — Kent Nelson — 167

A Fairly Regular Four — Frederick Raphael — 181

Mixed Doubles — Irwin Shaw — 189

The Blacktop Champion of Ickey Honey — Robert T. Sorrells —199

Balance His, Swing Yours — Wallace Stegner — 229

The Tennis Court — Paul Theroux — 239 

The Phantom Drive — William T. Tilden — 247

Matilda’s England (I. The Tennis Court) — William Trevor — 261 


Poems

A Lawn-Tennisonian Idyll — Anonymous — 283

Tennis — Margaret Avison — 285

A Subaltern’s Love-song —  John Betjeman — 286

The Olympic Girl  — John Betjeman — 288

Old Tennis Player — Gwendolyn Brooks — 289

On Watching a Young Man Play Tennis — Kelly Cherry — 290 

Tennis in San Juan — Reuel Denney — 292

My Tennis Pro Is Shot — Gary Fincke — 294

Doc Stavic Coaches — Gary Fincke — 295

Tennis Elbow — Jim Hall — 296 

Watching Tennis — John Heath-Stubbs — 298

A Dialogue Concerning the Question Whether

a Tennis Ball May be Said to Hanker for

the Other Side of the Net — Conrad Hilbery — 299

On the Tennis Court at Night — Galway Kinnell — 300

Autumn: Evening Tennis — Mark Kirby — 302

Prothalamion — Maxine Kumin — 303

Clobber the Lobber — Felicia Lamport — 304

Tennis Instructor, 1971 — Brad Leithauser — 305

Tennis — Osip Mandelstam — 308

The Old Pro’s Lament — Paul Petrie — 309

Tennis — Robert Pinsky — 311

Bjorn Borg — William T. Scammell — 315

The Pregnant Lady Playing Tennis — Karen Volkman — 316

A Snapshot for Mrs. Bricka Who Lost in the Semi-final

Round of the  Pennsylvania Lawn Tennis Tournament

at Haverford, July, 1960 — Robert Wallace —317

The Tennis — E. B. White — 319