SubscribeRequired reading: A Terrible Splendor
It sounds like a grade B melodrama, but The New York Times reviewed A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played, by Marshall Jon Fisher, in its Sunday book section this weekend.
This is the tale of Don Budge, Baron GottÂfried von Cramm, and Big Bill Tilden competing at Wimbledon in 1937. The book foreshadows the coming Holocaust and the treatment of men like von Cramm, who tried to keep the secret that he was homosexual.
His Jewish doubles partner had fled Germany; so had his Jewish lover. In the months leading up to the match, von Cramm was interrogated by the Gestapo about his homosexual activities, was barred from playing singles in the French Championships, divorced his wife and lost the Wimbledon final for the third straight year (to Budge, no less).
I’m always skeptical of words like “greatest” or “best” in a title; there’s rarely universal agreement on the given subject. As the reviwer puts it, “By illuminating the terrible shadows of time, Fisher shows that hyperbole may be fleeting, but champions are not.”
The Wall Street Journal also posted a review.
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