Arthur Ashe Oral History Project Bibliography

The Arthur Ashe Oral History Project, with an expanding list of nearly 100 interviewees, commenced in 2019, with the first interviews conducted late that year. To prepare for interviews, we conducted extensive research including reading numerous articles, watching documentaries and TV interviews, reviewing archival documents, and, of course, absorbing a wealth of knowledge from the many books that Ashe and many of the interviewees authored. Below we share our list as a resource for educators, students, scholars, and enthusiasts.

To start, books by Ashe were a must. He wrote, with other authors, four memoirs, each at different stages of his life.

  • Ashe, Arthur and Arnold Rampersad. Days of Grace: A Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993.
  • Ashe, Arthur and Neil Amdur. Off the Court. New York: The New American Library, 1981.
  • Ashe, Arthur and Frank Deford. Portrait in Motion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975.
  • Ashe, Arthur Jr. and Clifford George Gewecke Jr. Advantage Ashe. New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1967.

He also wrote a couple of books on sports.

  • Ashe, Arthur Jr. A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete. 3 vols. New York: Amistad, 1988.
  • Ashe, Arthur, and Alexander McNab, Arthur Ashe on Tennis, Strokes, Strategy, Traditions, Players, Psychology, and Wisdom.  New York:  Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. 

And there were other authors who also wrote about Ashe.

  • Arsenault, Raymond. Arthur Ashe: A Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2019.
  • Stanmyre, Jackie F. Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe: Breaking Down Tennis’s Color Barrier. New York: Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC, 2016.
  • Hall, Eric Allen. Arthur Ashe” Tennis and Justice in the Civil Rights Era. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2014.

Many of our interviewees had also written books on their experiences in tennis…

  • Happer, Marshall, Pioneers of the Game. Bardolf & Company, 2022.
  • Adams, Katrina M. Own the Arena: Getting Ahead, Making a Difference, and Succeeding as the Only One. New York: Amistad, 2021.
  • Evans, Richard, The Roving Eye, A Reporter’s Love. Affair with Paris, Politics and Sport.  London/New York:  Clink Street Publishing, 2017
  • Bollettieri, Nick and Bob Davis, Bollettieri, Changing the Game.  New Chapter Publisher, 2014.
  • Williams, Owen, Ahead of the Game, Memoir of a Trailblazer who Had Serious Fun While Turning Tennis into Big Business.  SMSI Press, 2013.
  • Assaiante, Paul and James Zug. Run to the Roar: Coaching to Overcome Fear. New York: Penguin Group, 2010.
  • Dell, Donald and John Boswell, Never Make the First Offer, (Except When You Should) Wisdom From a Master Dealmaker.  Portfolio/Penguin, 2009.
  • Glass, Luis. Successful Black Women in Tennis. United States: Xlibris Corporation, 2009.
  • Smith, Doug, Whirlwind, The Godfather of Black Tennis.  Washington DC:  Blue Eagle Publishing Co., 2004.
  • Evans, Richard, Open Tennis 1968-1989, The Players, the Politics, the Pressures, the Passions and the Great Matches. Massachusetts: The Stephen Greene Press, 1989.
  • Smith, Stan and Bob Lutz, Larry Sheehan, Jim McQueen,  Modern Tennis Doubles. Atheneum/SMI, 1975.
  • Riessen, Marty and Richard Evans. Match Point: A Candid View of Life on the International Tennis Circuit. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1973.

… As well as interviewees who wrote on other non-tennis subjects.

  • Green, Robert L., At The Crossroads of Fear and Freedom, The Fight For Social and Educational Justice, East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2016.
  • Mattera, Don, Memory is the Weapon. African Perspectives Publishing in association with African Morning Star Publications, 2007
  • Mattera, Don, Sophiatown, Coming of Age in South Africa.  Boston: Beacon Press, 1989.
  • Randall, Robinson, Defending the Spirit, A Black American Life. A Plume Book, 1998.
  • Smith, Paul, The Deep Calling to the Deep: Facing Death.  Coat of Many Colors, 1998.
  • Young, Andrew, A Way Out of No Way. Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1994.

Additional books we read on tennis and history

  • King, Billie Jean, All In, An Autobiography. Knopf 2021.
  • Hendrickson, Hildi, Building Beloved Communities, The Life and Work go Rev. Dr. Paul Smith. Athens:  University of Georgia Press, 2021.
  • Edwards, Harry, The Revolt of the Black Athlete, 50th Anniversary Edition.  Universaty of Illinois Press, 2018.
  • Johnson, James W. The Black Bruins: The Remarkable Lives of UCLA’s Jackie Robinson, Woody Strode, Tom Bradley, Kenny Washington, and Ray Bartlett. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2017.
  • Bodo, Peter, Ashe vs. Connors: Wimbledon 1975: Tennis That Went Beyond Centre Court. Aurum Press 2015.
  • Carrington, Arthur A. Black Tennis, An Archival Collection 1890-1962. Paradise Copies, 2009.
  • Djata, Sundiata. Blacks at the Net: Black Achievement in the History of Tennis. Volume 2. New York: Syracuse University Press, 2008.
  • DeRoche, Andrew J., Andrew Young Civil Rights Ambassador. Wilmington, Delaware:  Scholarly Resources, Inc., 2003.
  • Garrison, Zina and Doug Smith. Zina: My Life in Women’s Tennis. Berkeley: Frog, Ltd., 2001.
  • Bodo, Peter. Courts of Babylon: Dispatches from the Golden Age of Tennis. New York: Diversion Publishing Corporation, 1995.
  • Porter, A.P. Zina Garrison: ACE. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 1991.
  • King, Billie Jean and Frank Deford, Billie Jean. New York:  The Viking Press. 1982
  • Kramer, Jack and Frank Deford, The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis.  New York:  G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1979. 
  • Thurman, Howard, Jesus and The Disinherited. Boston:  Beacon Press, 1976.
  • McPhee, John, Levels of the Game. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969.
  • Gibson, Althea and Edward E. Fitzgerald. I Always Wanted to Be Somebody. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated, 1958.