Beyond a Boundary

by C L R James

Overview

This new edition of C. L. R. James's classic Beyond a Boundary celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of one of the greatest books on sport and culture ever written.

Named one of the Top 50 Sports Books of All Time by Sports Illustrated

"Beyond a Boundary . . . should find its place on the team with Izaak Walton, Ivan Turgenev, A. J. Liebling, and Ernest Hemingway."-Derek Walcott, The New York Times Book Review

"As a player, James the writer was able to see in cricket a metaphor for art and politics, the collective experience providing a focus for group effort and individual performance. . . . [In] his scintillating memoir of his life in cricket, Beyond a Boundary (1963), James devoted some of his finest pages to this theme."-Edward Said, The Washington Post

"A work of double reverence-for the resilient, elegant ritualism of cricket and for the black people of the world."-Whitney Balliett, The New Yorker

"Beyond a Boundary is a book of remarkable richness and force, which vastly expands our understanding of sports as an element of popular culture in the Western and colonial world."-Mark Naison, The Nation

"Everything James has done has had the mark of originality, of his own flexible, sensitive, and deeply cultured intelligence. He conveys not a rigid doctrine but a delight and curiosity in all the manifestations of life, and the clue to everything lies in his proper appreciation of the game of cricket."-E. P. Thompson, author of The Making of the English Working Class

"Beyond a Boundary is . . . first and foremost an autobiography of a living legend-probably the greatest social theorist of our times."-Manning Marable, Journal of Sport & Social Issues

"The great triumph of Beyond a Boundary is its ability to rise above genre and in its very form explore the complex nature of colonial West Indian society."-Caryl Phillips, The New Republic

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822355632
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	06/17/2013
Series:	C. L. R. James Archives
Edition description:	50th Anniversary ed.
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	458,488
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

C. L. R. James (1901-89), a Trinidadian historian, political activist, and prolific writer, was one of the twentieth century's most important intellectuals. He is the author of a renowned study of the Haitian Revolution, The Black Jacobins (1938), and a play, Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History (1934), which is published by Duke University Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Foreword Paget Henry xi

Introduction to the American Edition Robert Lipsyte xvii

A Note on Cricket xxiii

Preface xxvii

Part 1 A Window to the World

1 The Window 3

2 Against the Current 21

3 Old School-tie 39

Part 2 All the World's a Stage

4 The Light and the Dark 49

5 Patient Merit 66

6 Three Generations 72

7 The Most Unkindest Cut 82

Part 3 One Man in his Time

8 Prince and Pauper 101

9 Magnanimity in Politics 117

10 Wherefore Are These Things Hid? 128

Part 4 To Interpose a Little Ease

11 George Headley: Nascitur Non Fit 139

Part 5 W. G.: Pre-Eminent Victorian

12 What Do Men Live By? 151

13 Prolegomena to W. G. 159

14 W. G. 171

15 Decline of the West 186

Part 6 The Art and Practic Part

16 'What Is Art?' 195

17 The Welfare State of Mind 212

Part 7 Vox Populi

18 The Proof of the Pudding 225

19 Alma Mater: Lares and Penates 253

Epilogue and Apotheosis 257

Index 263

What People are Saying About This

The Making of the English Working Class - E. P. Thompson

"Everything James has done has had the mark of originality, of his own flexible, sensitive, and deeply cultured intelligence. He conveys not a rigid doctrine but a delight and curiosity in all the manifestations of life, and the clue to everything lies in his proper appreciation of the game of cricket."

The New Republic - Caryl Phillips

"The great triumph of Beyond a Boundary is its ability to rise above genre and in its very form explore the complex nature of colonial West Indian society."

Editorial Reviews

"Beyond a Boundary . . . should find its place on the team with Izaak Walton, Ivan Turgenev, A. J. Liebling, and Ernest Hemingway."--Derek Walcott "New York Times Book Review"

"Beyond a Boundary is . . . first and foremost an autobiography of a living legend--probably the greatest social theorist of our times."--Manning Marable "Journal of Sport & Social Issues"

"Beyond a Boundary is a book of remarkable richness and force, which vastly expands our understanding of sports as an element of popular culture in the Western and colonial world."
--Mark Naison "The Nation"

"A work of double reverence--for the resilient, elegant ritualism of cricket and for the black people of the world."
--Whitney Balliett "The New Yorker"

"As a player, James the writer was able to see in cricket a metaphor for art and politics, the collective experience providing a focus for group effort and individual performance. . . . [In] his scintillating memoir of his life in cricket, Beyond a Boundary (1963), James devoted some of his finest pages to this theme."
--Edward Said "Washington Post"

"Delightful and lively, full of vivid, detailed descriptions of players and play. . . . I doubt I'll ever sit through an entire test match, but if you told me I could only keep a half-dozen sports books, this would probably be one of them."--Tim Marchman "Deadspin"

"It's a measure of James's value as a writer that a case can be made that Beyond a Boundary is one of the best books about a sport ever written, and yet it's hard to imagine anyone placing it among the three or four most important books that James wrote. It is, however, well worth reading, because of what it tells us about James' political development, and because of its much broader lessons about sports."--Don Lash "Socialist Worker"

From the Publisher

It's a measure of James's value as a writer that a case can be made that Beyond a Boundary is one of the best books about a sport ever written, and yet it's hard to imagine anyone placing it among the three or four most important books that James wrote. It is, however, well worth reading, because of what it tells us about James' political development, and because of its much broader lessons about sports.

Socialist Worker - Don Lash

"A work of double reverence—for the resilient, elegant ritualism of cricket and for the black people of the world."

The New Yorker - Whitney Balliett

"Beyond a Boundary is a book of remarkable richness and force, which vastly expands our understanding of sports as an element of popular culture in the Western and colonial world."

The Nation - Mark Naison

Delightful and lively, full of vivid, detailed descriptions of players and play. . . .  I doubt I'll ever sit through an entire test match, but if you told me I could only keep a half-dozen sports books, this would probably be one of them.

Deadspin - Tim Marchman

"The great triumph of Beyond a Boundary is its ability to rise above genre and in its very form explore the complex nature of colonial West Indian society."

The New Republic - Caryl Phillips

"Everything James has done has had the mark of originality, of his own flexible, sensitive, and deeply cultured intelligence. He conveys not a rigid doctrine but a delight and curiosity in all the manifestations of life, and the clue to everything lies in his proper appreciation of the game of cricket."

The Making of the English Working Class - E. P. Thompson

"As a player, James the writer was able to see in cricket a metaphor for art and politics, the collective experience providing a focus for group effort and individual performance. . . . [In] his scintillating memoir of his life in cricket, Beyond a Boundary (1963), James devoted some of his finest pages to this theme."

Washington Post - Edward Said

"Beyond a Boundary is . . . first and foremost an autobiography of a living legend—probably the greatest social theorist of our times."

Journal of Sport & Social Issues - Manning Marable

"Beyond a Boundary . . . should find its place on the team with Izaak Walton, Ivan Turgenev, A. J. Liebling, and Ernest Hemingway."

The New York Times Book Review - Derek Walcott

"Beyond a Boundary . . . should find its place on the team with Izaak Walton, Ivan Turgenev, A. J. Liebling, and Ernest Hemingway."

New York Times Book Review - Derek Walcott