Levels of the Game
By John McPhee
Categories: Sports & Outdoors
John McPhee's 1969 book covers a single tennis match, between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner at the 1968 U.S. Open at Forest Hills. McPhee follows the match stroke by stroke, from the first serve to the final point, while tracing the players' backgrounds. He shows how Ashe, a Black player raised in Richmond, Virginia, and Graebner, a white dentist's son from suburban Ohio, carried their upbringings, values and politics into their games.