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
