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Blood sport or poetry in motion? Amy relcutantly weighs in on the sport of boxing this week, reciting Mrs. Elwood Nickerson’s ballad about a historic prize fight in 19th-century England between the British boxer Tom Sayers and America’s “Benicia Boy,” John Heenan. You’ll also learn how a social introduction by Paris Review editor George Plimpton in 1966 led boxing great Muhammad Ali to collaborate on a poem with the esteemed American modernist poet Marianne Moore.

Mentioned in this episode:

“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift

“The Fight of the Century” by The Rest is History podcast

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 114 on Elsie Robinson

“Heenan and Sayers” by Mrs. Elwood Nickerson

Marianne Moore

“When Muhammed Ali Wrote a Poem with Marianne Moore” by Danny Heitman

“A Poem on the Annihilation of Ernie Terrell” by Marianne Moore and Muhammad Ali

“Marianne Moore and Muhammed Ali” blog post by Robin Bates

“I Am the Greatest” by Cassius Clay

“I Am the Greatest” spoken word album by Cassius Clay (Gary Belkin)

Cassius Clay’s ghostwriter, Gary Belkin

“Remembering Muhammad Ali’s Ghostwriters” by Paul Cantor

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