The Divine Miss Marble
A Life of Tennis, Fame, and Mystery
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“In Robert Weintraub’s exhaustive biography, The Divine Miss Marble, he transports the reader into Marble’s vibrant world. It’s a dreamy, indomitable life worth reading about as today’s tennis tries to return to form.”—The Washington Post
“An intriguing book about a fascinating woman…highly recommended.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“Delightful and engrossing, this is a must for tennis fans.”—Publishers Weekly
The story of 1930s tennis icon Alice Marble, and her life of sports, celebrity, and incredible mystery.
Who was Alice Marble?
In her public life, she was the biggest tennis star of the pre-war era, a household name like Joe DiMaggio and Joe Louis. She was famous for overcoming serious illness to win the biggest tournaments, including Wimbledon. She was also a fashion designer and trendsetter, a contributor to a pioneering new comic called Wonder Woman—and friend to the biggest names in Hollywood and society, like Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies, and members of families named Bloomingdale, Loew, and du Pont. She helped integrate tennis with her support of Althea Gibson, and even coached two young women who became stars in their own right: Billie Jean King and Sally Ride.
Yet her private life provoked constant speculation while she was alive, and her own memoirs added layers of legend upon stories. According to Alice, she married a man who was killed in the skies over Europe during World War II. But who was the man she loved, and had he even existed? She was widely known for her patriotism during World War II. Had she really nearly given her life for her country as a spy, shot during a wild car chase fleeing foreign espionage agents?
In The Divine Miss Marble, bestselling author Robert Weintraub traveled the country to uncover her fascinating story. And the more he learned about her, the more her mysteries and contradictions deepened. Alice was a powerful woman who knew her worth, demanding equal pay to men decades earlier than other female athletes; yet she was held in sway by a domineering, highly successful coach with whom she had a volatile relationship. She was renowned for her California style, and had a brilliant mind and the guts to overcome a lifetime of physical trauma.
For the first time here, we come closer than ever before to the truths of this unforgettable life, and somehow it’s a story even more extraordinary than everything we already know about the divine Alice Marble.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sports journalist Weintraub (No Better Friend) entertainingly explores the legacy of 18-time Grand Slam champion Alice Marble (1913 1990). Despite humble beginnings Marble was born into a working-class San Francisco family, in which her father died of the Spanish flu and she herself suffered tuberculosis Marble, Weintraub writes, rose "to conquer the sport of royalty." She excelled at tennis in high school and competed in state championships, ultimately playing in the French Open in 1934. She won her first U.S. Open in 1936 (and again in 1938, 1939, and 1940) and Wimbledon in 1939. Marble was the first woman to forgo wearing skirts on the court in favor of shorts ("they weren't merely cut short but tight and revealing") and throughout her career she was a trendsetter, creating her own clothing line. At the height of her fame, the outgoing Marble was known to sing in nightclubs and worked as a writer on various comics series, including Wonder Woman. As Weintraub notes in this spirited and thorough biography, Marble helped integrate tennis by championing Althea Gibson (publicly stating the young athlete should be allowed to play in the Nationals), and she later coached such future greats as Billie Jean King and Sally Ride. Delightful and engrossing, this is a must for tennis fans.
